
Amy Brooks 











CL^ '^* ^Sj [?' - 4. ' ' cf' ^ 

■ .# .^ JL .r ^ ^ ^ * 0 , 

?^: ^oo^. . - . 

9 ^ 



<■ 4 ^ 

•»/v*"'‘\>^''^-''.r%*=’^'’’ 

-■^.V -fi-. .; A.'!' ’■^'^<^.l‘'' '’V' A' 

^ . aN' '©ttZl *_ ,•0^^ “ 

> c: A 



O' 





^ 0 >t 


'% 



V^ 



N c 


,v'= ^ % ■ '< ^ ■ - 

, ^ .^o.v'*' A- 

-^h <A »'"«• ^ -•''''' 

<• ^-^ r'^ >■ ^ ^ v! 

J- 




^ ’ / 


0^ v> 

V ■/. y ., 

.\V </»- 1 r < 




V ^ 

X V ‘ * <r ^ 

x‘^' C ® *' « ^O. 

. -^ ».«"’‘\\^^ S»«, - - A 

*0^ O V' ^ \0' ^ 

V ,.W7«vi^. ^ ^ ^ 

'O 


».,'«’V'',..rv'*.oTo’ 4o 

^ * .(Cx^r A = 





',.''\ 0 ^ < 'o.\* A s ' ' 

^x* „ ' ' « < -« A' c “ y>- ,.o' 

: xo t • 

,A ' ^ 

o*" .0^ ^o. ^ 

" 


\V 


eo 

A> .O 

; » _^v '-■ 

■• aV . . -y 0 . X ■* ,y „ ^ 

A ' . 0 N C 


<r *> A 


c 



» » y 



■%. » 

•y 

A' c‘>^‘ «'\. ^o'y 

\ 'f‘1. y c yy^Pi ^ •^ \ "A 

^ ^ ^ ^0 <1^ 

ijv J 

°- "» » o*'' \V ' 

’ < '* ^ 



<^°’ 'y. .y •-' . ^ ,''jy-r^y y ax 

.X 

* rV ^ A - o^‘ "* ^ 

gfillflil ^^ ^ c -,,, /.v-, XVI- vv- -j- 

oV ’^’ •-> J^'' '■^ > 

* ' ^x-jx^" c 0 . %"'•' ‘ y ^''<^°'' “ ’ ^ V^ c » ^ y ° ' 

o'' : «f ^ v^ : '^o o'* 


■>> -y 


■^' 'y , 


xV A 








X°®^. 

- ax’ 

(^, ^ a*’ r^ y ^-d ^ ry 4- 

°A * » I T ” \^ s''/ ■’^j. * '^ '^ 

\ ^ ^ .- aV . 

y> ,^'^^ x'”*’ ' '% ‘x’’ 

a 




y 

s " ,.:%■ * ^ :‘A, X . /, ,\; “ '" / s s • « 

^ 'p 

r -y. A, - 



V “5- 
xxV A 






^ ^ * 






V 


\a\" ^ % 




O 


>>■ 

>h 

^ 9 I ^ '5' 

n ' * \ s ^ r > 

- -■ 


- ,*• Q-- o^ ^ ■ " 

0 N 0 « 




„,- , . „ -' » 1 1 “ v'!' 

0 ^ <J. ^ * 0 ^ 


0 ^ 




A*^ V •», C, ^ “•"'*' a\^ 
-O' ^’ ■% .# 

^ , 5 ;^ .\ >. 

> - 9 ' 


^ /% 1 %I 




^ 


'' . <* . 0 <t X 

^■N - V ' B A 

i-O’ \ ^ -i 

<-> <r - 






X-i 


o 


y * 0 

r^ <y ^ rt ^ r 0 






t. ^ 

^ "= 

• aV tP^ 

'*’ 'V 

^ cP '' . 

'*‘ A O “^ / V 


00 

V ^ n ^ 9 1 ' ‘^ x'^ S ^ ^ 


V^' 




•Cr 








.V <p. 




0 t^ \ 




O Q 


ff I "V 


sx'^' 

, S ^ ^ ^ 

\^ V > 0 -=. 


^ cP ^i4i''^v4o «>» X ■^* 

-'• A* ^'Xxv'vS^ > -^ ^ 

aT’° 0 ^- ^b. ^ 

X-' v'l,fi4.^,- ^ 

» « .A ^S“ ^ 


d\ c“ (-O' v° 

^ ^ A;. ' “' 

", ■'^ V ^ ff\V 

C . 0 O 


‘X V 

o 0 ^ 




.0 


f 2 '>1 


^r 


iV </', 


V:. ^"-4'''^' f 

Cl ^ 






A 


^ '■f‘, ^ 

Wfi", ^ ^ 

: xO 

■ft"^ 0 ' ^ 

'" ^ ^ 9 1 A * " *^ 0 N 0 ’ 4*^ ^ ^ fi 

kI al' \^ ^ ^ -'rn rs v \ ti- n 

, 0 ' V’ . 0 ' xx'* o 

(A ^ ^'^ 6 .' A, ^ 


0 H 0 


^ r /I 

r fvi \ (vW //) 


V 




aV 

^V <P- 


^ ^ Z 

r; ° 

^ ,v^ ^ - 




O. 


A'' <t ' ' 8 .? ''<?> 

cP ,vV„^ ■> AP 


0 ^ y 


i V' 






V 




C 


0 ^ V 


>: ,0 


'^bo'< 




V v -^ . 



» A 


?* W 

z 


% , : „ >' , 0 - 

\' c <> « , J N " 

V’ A^ ^ 


X * 0 


^ '-<C. y 

v''\^'.:^^ 




^ A 







Si ^ O 


f 


PRINCESS POLLY 
AT PLAY 


THE 

Princess Polly 

SERIES 

By Amy Brooks 

Size sH X 7H inches 
Six illustrations by the author. 
Bound in cloth, stamped in 
gold and colors. 

Price, Net, 50 Cents Each 

Polly Sherwood, named Princess Polly by her ad- 
miring playmates, is a sweet-tempered, sunny, 
loveable little girl. The story of her childhood 
days and of her pleasant and happy times with her 
little friends, is told in the author^s most pleasing 
style. Every little girl who makes the acquaintance 
of Polly Sherwood will love her, and parents will be 
glad to place in the hands of their children such 
clean, uplifting and inspiring books as these. 

I. Princess Polly 
^ 2. Princess Polly’s Playmates 
3. Princess Polly at School 
^ 4. Princess Polly by the Sea 
^ 5. Princess Polly’s Gay Winter 
^ 6. Princess Polly at Play 

/VTC Z,//3-/=u 

New York THE PLATT & PECK CO. PubUshers 










» 


# 




« 








i 









¥ 



/ 


«/ 





* 





t 



. 4 














✓ 

» 


n ' 




t 





t 


•• 


» 

r 


'! 


« 




I 


I 


4 



9 



* 








ft » 



4 




9 


I 



ft 


ti 


# 


r 

•s 



I 




ft 







‘m. 


f^OO 


-4^ 


«« 


3 ^ 


3 ^ 


•^M 




«:i:4k, 






“They were out in the sunshine.” 




PRINCESS POLLY 
AT PLAY 


BY 


AMY BROOKS 

If 

AUTHOR OF “THE PRINCESS POLLY SERIES’* 
“DOROTHY DAINTY SERIES’’ 
“THE RANDY BOOKS.’’ “THE 
PRUE BOOKS.’’ Etc. 


WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR 



THE PLATT & PECK CO. 



Copyright, 1915, by 
THE PLATT & PECK CO. 



AUG 191915 

©Gi.A410150 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

I Polly, Rose and Gwen 9 

II Who Was It 28 

III Little Sea Nymphs 48 

IV What Max Did 68 

V What Max Found 87 

VI The Sea King’s Nymphs 106 

VII A Wedding at Cliffmore 126 

VIII Aunt Rose Calls 144 

IX At Avondale 163 

X The Ship Comes In 182 

XI Little Pitchers 201 

XII Max a Stowaway . 220 














LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


*They were out in the sunshine” . . Frontispiece t/ 

FAaNG PAGE ^ 

“A long time she sat motionless upon the post” 24 
“Their graceful forms swaying” .... 64 

“Now indeed she was afraid” 90 ^ 

“She still stood at the gate” 148 ^ 

“She looked far out across the dancing waves” 188 



PRINCESS POLLY 
AT PLAY 

CHAPTER I 

POLLY, ROSE AND GWEN 

SUMMER at Cliffmore! 



Princess Polly and Rose Ather- 


ton could think of little else. 

It was true that Avondale was a charm- 
ing place in which to live, and there were 
pleasant schoolmates and merry times 
when Winter came. There were fine 
lawns and beautiful flowers everywhere, 
but Polly and Rose loved the shore, and 
surely the salt air was delightful, and the 
beach a lovely place on which to romp. 
There was Captain Seaford, whose little 
daughter, Sprite, had spent the winter at 


lo PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
Avondale, and a pleasant little playmate 
and classmate she had been. 

She had returned to her home at Cliff- 
more, and now was counting the days 
when Princess Polly and Rose would ar- 
rive, and every morning she would stand 
in the doorway of her home on the beach, 
and look in the direction in which Avon- 
dale lay. 

It happened one morning that at the 
same moment that Sprite opened the door 
to look out. Princess Polly and Rose were 
talking of her. They, too, were out in the 
sunshine. 

“How pretty Sprite looked last Summer 
when she played that she was a little mer- 
maid, and lay on the rocks looking down 
into the water, her long yellow hair hang- 
ing down over her shoulders,” Polly said. 

“And the day that she invited me over 


POLLY, ROSE AND GWEN ii 
to her house,” said Rose, “her dress was 
light green, and she wore a string of coral 
around her neck. I thought she looked 
sweet then.” 

“How we did enjoy her house! We 
never saw one like it. It was a ship’s hulk, 
turned upside down, and divided up into 
rooms. Oh, but it was cosey!” Polly said. 

“And it won’t be long before we’ll be 
there at the shore, playing with Sprite just 
as we did last Summer,” said Rose. 

A long time they stood talking. There 
were such delightful memories of Cliff- 
more, and so many pleasures to anticipate. 
There would be sailing trips on the “Dol- 
phin,” the yacht belonging to Captain 
Atherton, and Captain Atherton himself 
had hinted at some sort of merry-making 
that would occur at his fine home on the 
shore. 


12 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

“Uncle John doesn’t say whether it is 
to be a party, or what it will be, but when 
I asked him if it would be fine, he took me 
on his knee, and he said : 

“ ‘Rose, little Rose, it will be the bright- 
est, the happiest event that I ever attend- 
ed,’ so I guess it will be fine, for Uncle 
John always means what he says,” Rose 
concluded. 

“Oh, we can’t help wondering what it 
will be like, and just when it will be,” 
Princess Polly said, her hands tightly 
clasped and her eyes bright with excite- 
ment. 

“It’s a lovely place to stay in, even if 
there wasn’t a single thing planned for 
amusement, but when you know there’ll 
be ever so many good times happening 
during the Summer, it makes us wild to 
start for Cliffmore.” 


POLLY, ROSE AND GWEN 13 

The sound of footsteps running made 
them turn, just as Gwen Harcourt came 
racing toward them. 

She was a little neighbor, so bold, so 
regardless of the feelings of others, so apt 
to tell outrageous stories, that Polly and 
Rose were not fond of her. She never 
stopped to question if she were welcome, 
but entered any house where the door 
stood open, and at once made herself quite 
at home, always remaining until she chose 
to go. 

She was evidently quite excited. Her 
short, curling hair blew about her face, 
and her cheeks were red. 

“What do you think?” she cried. ‘Tve 
just come from that big house over there, 
where the people have just moved in. I 
couldn’t tell if I’d like to know them, un- 
less I went when I could see them, so this 


J4 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
morning I went right up to the door, and 
as it wasn’t locked, I opened it, and went 
in.” 

“Why, Gwen Harcourt!” Rose ex- 
claimed. 

“Well, what?” Gwen said pertly. 

“S’pose I was going to wait and wonder 
what those people were like? I guess not. 
I went right straight in and looked at them, 
so now I know. 

“The lady isn’t much to look at, and she 
wasn’t dressed up the least bit, and the 
baby that the nursemaid was holding was 
awful homely. 

“Its face was red, and its hair was sort 
of straight and stringy, and when it cried, 
and that was most all the time I was there, 
it made a perfectly horrid face. 

“There’s a boy there, too, and I didn’t 
like him very well,” she continued. “He 


POLLY, ROSE AND GWEN 15 
talked to me some, but he wants to do all 
the talking, and I don’t like that. I want 
to talk most of the time, myself.” 

Polly and Rose managed not to laugh. 

“Perhaps if you had been willing to 
listen, and let him talk more, you might 
have liked him better,” Polly said. 

“No, I wouldn’t!” Gwen said, stoutly, 
“for what little he did say made me mad. 
Think how rude he was! When I told 
him my whole truly name was Gwendolen 
Armitage Harcourt, he just said: 

“ ‘H’m! Is that so? Well, my name is 
Jona Jonathan Ebenezer Montgomery, 
and that beats your name all hollow.’ The 
lady laughed, but she said: ‘Don’t tease 
the little girl. That is not your name at 
all. Why not tell her what your real name 
is?’ 

“He didn’t do it. He just said: ‘Oh, 


i6 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
bother!’ and ran out doors. I didn’t like 
the boy, but the big room seemed duller 
after he went out, so after a while I slipped 
out, and when I saw you two talking, I 
came over here. What were you talking 
about?” 

“We were talking about the fine times 
we’ll have at Cliffmore this Summer,” 
Polly said, “and we can hardly wait to en- 
joy them.” 

“I’d not care to go there,” Gwen said, 
with a toss of her head. 

“Well, then,” said Rose, “it’s lucky 
you don’t have to go there.” 

“Yes, isn’t it?” Gwen said, cheerfully. 
“I could if I wanted to. Mamma will go 
wherever I wish, that is if I just act horrid 
enough.” 

“Why, what do you mean?” Polly 
asked, and Gwen laughed. 


POLLY, ROSE AND GWEN 17 

“You’re funny girls,” she said. “Don’t 
either of you know that the way to get 
your own way is to scream and be just as 
horrid as you can until your mamma ‘gives 
inf ” 

“I’d not care to act like that,” Princess 
Polly said, and Rose said : “Neither would 

1 .” 

“Well, I want my own way, all the time 
and everywhere, and that’s the way I get 
it,” declared Gwen, and she danced off 
down the avenue, humming as cheerfully 
as if she had told of doing pleasant things. 

“Isn’t it queer?” Rose said. “Gwen 
tells of being disagreeable, as if she felt 
proud of it.” 

“Mrs. Harcourt does the same thing,” 
said Primrose Polly. “She’s always tell- 
ing of horrid pranks, and rude things that 
Gwen says, and she tells them as if she 


i8 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
thought Gwen very smart to act so. It 
isn’t odd that Gwen behaves so badly, for 
she likes to act just perfectly horrid. She 
says so, and if she thinks her mamma likes 
it, what is there to make her stop?” 

“And Uncle John says, oh. I’d not tell 
exactly what he says, but he said only yes- 
terday that he could not understand how 
any woman could let her little daughter 
grow up like a weed. He said Gwen was 
pretty to look at, but as unpleasant as a 
nettlebush. I’d not like anyone to say that 
of me,” Rose said. 

“Well, no one ever would say that about 
you,” Polly said lovingly. 

“Nor you,” replied Rose. 

Then, their arms clasping each other, 
they slipped down the sidewalk. 

It was but a few days longer that they 
must wait before sailing to Cliffmore. 


POLLY, ROSE AND GIVEN 19 
The year before, they had made the trip 
by train, but this time they were intending 
to go a short distance by rail, and then, on 
Captain Atherton’s yacht, complete the 
trip by water. It would be a delightful 
sail, and as every member of the party 
loved the water, it was sure to be a merry 
little sailing trip down the bay. 

Gwen Harcourt had not spoken truth- 
fully when she had said that she would not 
wish to go to Cliffmore. Indeed, that very 
morning she had used her unpleasant 
method in an effort to coax her mother to 
go to Cliffmore, and for the first time in 
her little life, it had not worked. 

She had heard from Polly, Rose, and 
Sprite of the pleasure that they had en- 
joyed there, and she had at once decided 
that no other place could be as delightful. 
“I guess I can go there as well as they 


20 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
can,” she had whispered to herself, and 
then, running up to the big living room 
she had first asked, then coaxed, and there, 
as a final effort, had screamed for a half 
hour. Mrs. Harcourt would, as usual, 
have quickly agreed at once to spend the 
Summer as Gwen wished, but it happened 
that other plans already made, rendered it 
impossible. The silly woman offered 
everything that she could think of to 
pacify Gwen, but Gwen declared that 
nothing would make up to her for the re- 
fusal to go to Cliffmore. 

Then when she found her screaming 
wholly useless, she dried her eyes, and 
rushed out and down the avenue to tell 
Polly and Rose that she would not care to 
go there. 

If she had waited a day longer to tell 
them it would have been as well, because 


POLLY, ROSE AND GWEN 21 
Mrs. Harcourt, lest the disappointment 
might be too hard for Gwen, had, at great 
inconvenience, changed her plans, and on 
the following day she told Gwen that 
Cliffmore would be their summer home. 

Gwen did not rush out this time to tell 
the news. 

Had she not just said that she would not 
care to go there? 

“ril say nothing about it, and when 
they get to Cliffmore, they’ll be s’prised to 
find me there, but I’ll act as if I’d known 
all along that I’d be there,” thought 
Gwen. 

Mrs. Harcourt and Gwen went the next 
day, and thus it happened that when the 
“Dolphin” sailed up to the pier, the first 
person that Rose and Polly saw was Gwen, 
sitting high on the top of a tall post! It 
was a most successful surprise. 


22 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 


“Hello!” she cried, with impish laugh- 
ter, “I got here ’fore you did!” 

“Why so you did,” Polly replied. 
“When did you come?” 

“Oh, I’ve been here some time,” she 
said, laughing again. 

“Well, you’ve not been here a month, 
Gwen Harcourt!” said Rose. “It was 
only three days ago that you were in Avon- 
dale, and you said then that you’d not care 
to go to Cliff more !” 

“Well, I didn’t go,” cried Gwen, “I’ve 
come, and I’m going to stay!” 

Of course Sprite had come to meet them, 
and as the three walked up the pier they 
saw that Gwen made no attempt to follow. 

She wished them to know that she was 
at Cliffmore, but having enjoyed their look 
of surprise, she preferred to keep her po- 
sition on the post. 


POLLY, ROSE AND GWEN 23 

It was so conspicuous that she knew 
that everyone coming up from the boats 
would surely see her, and beside that 
pleasure, she could stare at all the arrivals. 
Oh yes, her perch on the post delighted 
her. 

Not satisfied with staring at the people, 
she commenced to make remarks about 
them as they passed. As her remarks were 
largely directed at their clothes, they were 
not much pleased. 

“Oh, what big feet!” she said, when a 
big woman passed her, and to another she 
said ; “What a funny hat.” 

A fat man turned to frown at her when 
she said: “My! He must weigh a ton,” 
and a girl with long red braids blushed 
hotly when Gwen cried : 

“Red! Red! Fire! Fire!” 

Her mother would have thought any 


24 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
other child uncouth and ill-bred, if she did 
any one of the many outrageous things 
that Gwen was always doing. In Gwen 
she thought it bright and smart, and Gwen 
held the same opinion, but a young sailor, 
happening along just in time to hear her 
say something about a Jack Tar, that was 
not quite pleasing, stopped for an instant, 
and looked into her bold, blue eyes. 

“Do you know what you need, you little 
Monkey?” he cried. “You need to have 
someone give you a big ducking, and then 
you’d learn not to be so smart.” 

Gwen was too frightened to speak. She 
thought the sailor meant to give her the 
ducking that he said she needed, and she 
turned so pale that he let go his hold upon 
her, leaving her still sitting upon the post, 
but as he turned to go he shook his finger 
at her. 



“A long time she sat motionless upon the post.” 




POLLY, ROSE AND GWEN 25 

“Not another word, sissy, or someone’ll 
duck you, if I don’t,” he said. 

A long time she sat motionless upon the 
post until not only the sailor, but all of the 
people had left the pier. Then, looking 
cautiously around to learn if anyone was 
near, she slipped to the ground, and ran at 
top speed toward the hotel where she told 
a most remarkable tale of the sailor’s rude- 
ness to her, winding up by telling that he 
had been so mean as to duck her. 

“My dear little Gwen!” said her fond 
mamma. 

“Her serge frock seems rather dry for 
one that has just been plunged into the 
water,” said a lady who sat near them on 
the piazza. 

“Oh, look at her shoes! They’re dry 
too!” cried a small boy. “Say! When 
did you get your ducking?” 


26 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 


“You stop laughing, Max Deland!” 
cried Gwen. “I guess I could tell whether 
he ducked me or not better than you could, 
for you weren’t there!” 

“Oh, yes, you could tell!” cried the 
small boy, “but it might not be so, for all 
that, Gwen Harcourt.” 

Mrs. Harcourt rose quickly, and taking 
Gwen by the hand, left the piazza, and 
went up to her room. 

“Strange that any woman would be so 
foolish as to credit a yarn like that even if 
it is her own child that tells it,” said the 
lady who had spoken of the dry frock that 
Gwen declared had just been plunged into 
water. 

“Yes, it is strange, but I’ve known other 
women who were nearly as blind to their 
children’s faults,” her friend replied. 

“The child is really pretty, but so bold, 


POLLY, ROSE AND GWEN 27 
and pert that although she arrived less than 
a week ago, there is not a guest at this 
hotel who does not feel relieved when she 
leaves the piazza. Only think,” the lady 
continued, “she was out here this morning, 
sitting in that big chair that old Mr. Pen- 
dleton likes to have. He’s ill, and Gwen 
knew that he came out expecting to sit in 
it, but she looked up at him, and did not 
stir. ‘Gwen, dear,’ Mrs. Harcourt said; 
‘I think Mr. Pendleton would like that 
chair.’ ‘Well, I like it, and I’m going to 
keep it,’ Gwen said, swinging her legs, and 
settling back in the chair. ‘You really 
musn’t mind her,’ Mrs. Harcourt said. 

“ ‘I don’t intend to,’ he said, and Mrs. 
Harcourt looked as if she wondered what 
he meant.” 


CHAPTER II 

WHO WAS IT 

C APTAIN Seaford sitting in the sun, 
and mending nets, was aware that 
something was causing great, and unusual 
excitement in his house. 

He sat just outside the door, but the 
sound of hurried footsteps, of eager con- 
versation, of furniture being moved about, 
betokened something disturbing in the at- 
mosphere. 

“Company coming, or some kind o’ storm 
brewing!” he muttered with a knowing 
wink, although no one was near to see the 
comical grimace. 

Mrs. Seaford, usually calm and cheer- 
ful, now appeared in the doorway, a frown 

28 


WHO WAS IT 


29 

puckering her forehead, and a troubled 
look in her eyes. 

“Fve been over to the village,” she said, 
“and while I’ve been gone, someone has 
been through the house, opened every 
drawer, pulled out the contents and strewn 
them on the floor, and made a general mess 
that Fve worked an hour to clear up. 
Have you noticed anyone around the 
place?” 

“Haven’t seen a soul,” declared the 
Captain, “and I’ve been busy right here 
since before you went out. 

“Seems to me I did hear someone mov- 
ing about at one time, but I’m not even 
sure of that.” 

“Well, whoever it was managed to 
move about enough to make work for me 
to clear up,” Mrs. Seaford said. 

“There’s only one door to this house so 


30 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
how could anyone get out without passing 
me? You must surely be mistaken.” 

“The person, whoever it was, didn’t 
care to pass you coming in, or going out of 
the house, so climbed through the window. 
On his way out, he knocked some plants 
from the window-sill. Nothing has been 
stolen, so I can’t see the object in ransack- 
ing the house.” 

“ ’Taint poss’ble you’re nervous, and 
imagine someone’s been in, is it?” he 
asked, anxiously scanning her face. 

“Imagine?” Mrs. Seaford said. “Well, 
come in, and see what you think. I’ve 
cleared the worst of it, but here’s enough 
left to convince you.” 

He dropped the net on the sand, and 
went in. One look was enough. 

“What in the world !” he said, and 

no more, but his face spoke volumes. 


WHO WAS IT 


31 


It remained a mystery. Who would 
care to disturb the contents of the odd 
dwelling of the Seafords? Not a thief, 
surely, for it was well known that while 
the genial Captain had, at one time, been 
well to do, he had, for the past few years, 
had a struggle for existence. The old 
ship’s hulk, inverted, and furnished for a 
home, held but one treasure, love, and 
that, priceless as it was, could not be 
stolen. 

Who was the intruder? How had he 
come, and how had he vanished? 

Dwellers at Cliff more talked of it, at 
their homes, at church, and on the beach, 
but no one could give the slightest clue 
that might help in detecting the intruder. 

Excitement usually lasted regarding 
one matter until another subject was sug- 
gested, when the villagers would turn 


32 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
with fresh interest to the latest bit of news. 

Generally, it was a happening of small 
importance, that gained its prominence 
from having been frequently described, 
but one morning something occurred that 
shook the little fishing village, as Captain 
Seaford said, “from stem to stern.” 

When Mrs. Wilton, the housekeeper at 
Captain Atherton’s Summer home, “The 
Cliffs,” arose early one morning, she no- 
ticed that the Captain had forgotten the 
French window that opened on the porch. 
It evidently had been open on the evening 
before, and, by an oversight, had remained 
open all night. At a glance she saw that 
someone had been through the lower part 
of the house. 

Drawers were wide open, their contents 
strewn upon the floor. 

Flowers had been taken from the large 


WHO WAS IT 


33 

jars that held them, and left with their 
wet foliage and stems lying upon the pol- 
ished table. 

Delicate pieces of china had been lifted 
from the lower shelves of the china closet, 
and placed upon the table, the window 
seats, and even the piano boasted two 
dainty cups that the visitor, whoever it 
might be, had placed upon the keyboard. 

“Nothing is stolen,” the housekeeper 
said, in reporting the mischief to Captain 
Atherton, “and all the queer doin’s are on 
the first floor. Do you see that it looks 
as if the same person that went all over 
Captain Seaford’s house, has been roving 
through this one? Nothing was stolen 
there, but everything had been handled 
and pulled around.” 

“I’ll go out into the garden and think 
it over,” he replied. 


34 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

He left the house, but as he reached the 
lower step that led from the piazza he 
saw that the bold intruder, not satisfied 
with the mischief perpetrated in the house, 
had tried his hand at the garden. Beau* 
tiful plants had been lifted from their pots 
and thrown onto the walk, the hose lay 
beside them, running a stream, the foun- 
tain had been set running, and an old 
broom, used by the gardener, to sweep the 
walks, lay in the lower basin of the 
fountain. 

The housekeeper followed him out onto 
the piazza. 

“If you please, sir, Fd like just to say 
that I locked every door and window, ex- 
cept the one that opens onto this piazza, 
from the library. I went upstairs, know- 
ing that you were still reading, and think- 
ing you’d like that window open ’til you 


WHO WAS IT 


35 

went to your room for the night, when 
you’d be sure to shut and lock it.” 

John Atherton nodded, and walked 
along the path. He knew that the house- 
keeper was anxious to shift all responsi- 
bility from her broad shoulders onto his. 

“I guess I left that French window 
open, so that fault is mine, but who would 
be interested to rove through a home, pull- 
ing things to pieces, and making disorder, 
solely for the fun of doing it? Whoever 
it is, does not care to rob. It’s a puzzle 
that must be looked into.” 

The children were greatly excited, and 
inclined to look upon Polly and Rose with 
envy. 

It was interesting to listen while older 
people talked and argued as to how it hap- 
pened, and what sort of person played the 
pranks. Before the Summer guests had 


36 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
half finished discussing the happening at 
Captain Atherton’s house, they were again 
startled. 

It was early one morning, a half hour 
before breakfast would be served, when a 
big, florid woman came down the stairway 
to the lower hall, declaring that someone 
had been in her room, doing a deal of mis- 
chief. 

“Every article in my bureau drawer has 
been pulled out and thrown upon the floor, 
gowns have been removed from my closet, 
and are piled up on chairs in a heap, and 
my hats have been taken from their boxes 
and packed up on my bureau. Something 
must be done about it!” she declared in 
anger, and really one could not blame her. 

The proprietor appeared, and promised 
all sorts of things to pacify the woman and 
there the matter appeared to end, for 


WHO WAS IT 


37 


search as they would, no trace of the cul- 
prit could be found. The other guests felt 
uneasy. 

“Who could possibly guess whose room 
will be ransacked next?” said one lady, to 
another who sat beside her at breakfast, to 
which the other replied : 

“A few more happenings of this kind, 
and ril pack my trunks, and leave for a 
place where I can, at least, expect law and 
order.” 

The guests of the hotel found it an in- 
teresting theme for conversation, and 
talked of it morning, noon and night, until 
old Mr. Pendleton, the invalid, became so 
tired of hearing about it that his patience 
at last gave way. 

“What a fuss! What a nuisance of a 
fuss ! I declare. Women are upset if their 
finery is tossed around a bit. Nothing was 


38 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
stolen, so why complain? Why get 
excited?” 

No one replied to his outburst. It was 
well known that to reply to Mr. Pendleton 
was apt to provoke a torrent of abuse, so 
he was allowed to sit in his big chair in 
the corner of the piazza, looking with 
sharp, black, bead-like eyes from one 
woman to the other, silently amused, be- 
cause he believed that they dared not 
answer. 

He was a tough, wiry old man, not really 
ill, but believing himself to be an invalid, 
and enjoying the belief. Some one had 
heard a physician say that an event, or 
happening of any sort that would startle 
him into quick action would teach him that 
the health that he believed lost, was still 
in his possession. 

One morning the queerest thing hap- 


WHO WAS IT 


39 


pened, and as it was just after breakfast, 
all the guests of the hotel were present to 
share the great excitement. 

While the guests were at breakfast, the 
maids had put their rooms in order, and as 
it bid fair to be a hot day, nearly everyone 
decided to spend the morning on the broad 
piazza. 

Mr. Pendleton, as usual, sat in his fav- 
orite corner. He was talking with an- 
other man about some distant city that 
each had often visited. Evidently there 
was something about which they could not 
agree, for their voices rose in angry 
dispute. 

“I’m right in my opinion!” shouted Mr. 
Pendleton, in his thin, shrill voice. 

“And, sir, let me tell you that / am 
right!” boomed the fat man in a growling 
bass. 


40 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

“I’ll get my map and prove what I 
say!” cried Mr. Pendleton, springing from 
his chair, and starting toward the hall. 

The big man’s laugh made him increase 
his speed. The other guests were amused, 
but they were not prepared for the next 
thing that happened. 

Old Mr. Pendleton came tearing down 
the stairs, at the risk of breaking his neck, 
his cheeks flushed, and his small, black 
eyes blazing. 

“It’s an outrage! It’s disgusting! It’s 
not to be endured!” he shouted. “My 
room has been entered, and my belongings 
tossed about ! My pajamas are spread out 
on the floor as if someone meant to take a 
pattern of them ! My watch is soaking in 
the wash bowl, and my brush and comb 
are each in a slipper. My topcoat is out 
of the window and sprawling in the sun 


WHO WAS IT 


41 


on the roof of this piazza, and every neck- 
tie I own is hanging from the chandelier! 
I won’t stand it!” 

He paused for breath, and the woman 
whom he had vexed a few days before, was 
so unwise as to speak : 

“It might be well for you to realize just 
now that women are not the only ones 
who are upset when their finery is tossed 
about. As nothing was stolen, why com- 
plain ? Why get excited ?” 

“Madam! You haven’t the least idea 

of tact,” he cried. “If you had you’d ” 

but before he could complete his speech, 
the proprietor arrived, and a much harder 
task he had to appease the wrath of Mr. 
Pendleton, than that of the fat woman 
whose room had been entered a few days 
before. 

The mystery might never have been 


42 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
solved but for something that occurred on 
the following morning. 

A room on the second floor had windows 
looking out upon the sea. The door stood 
open, and a maid passing along the hall, 
paused to look in. Guests were not in the 
habit of leaving their room doors wide 
open. What she saw made her tip-toe 
softly away to a screen in the hall. 

From her position she could watch the 
inmate of the room. 

That room had been hired by the fat 
man with the big voice who often talked, 
and oftener disputed with Mr. Pendleton. 

It was easy to touch a button on the wall 
close beside her, and the bell-boy re- 
sponded in a few seconds. The maid held 
up her finger, at the same time pointing 
toward the open door, and whispering : 

“Sh — ! Go quick and get Mr. Buffing- 


WHO WAS IT 


43 

ton. Tell him somebody is in his room. 
Don’t make a sound here. I’ll watch 
while you’re gone. Rush now!” 

Mr. Buffington, big and ponderous, 
soon appeared, puffing like an engine. 
The maid saw him as he appeared above 
the stairs, and quickly held up her finger, 
as a signal to him to make no noise. 

Puzzled, yet impressed, the big man tip- 
toed along until he stood in the doorway. 

The intruder stood, back toward the 
door, and for the moment, was so occu- 
pied with pulling over the contents of a 
large trunk that footsteps outside the door 
were unnoticed. 

“You little rascal!” 

These words shouted made the intruder 
actually jump. 

“Ah, now. Miss Gwen, how happened 
ye in there?” said the maid. 


44 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

Gwen, thoroughly frightened, tried to 
rush from the room, but it was useless. 
The big man filled the doorway. He did 
not intend to hurt her, when he firmly 
grasped her arm, but he did intend to give 
her a lesson, and he proceeded to do it, 
walking her along the hall on the way to 
the stairway. 

Usually, Gwen’s boldness was equal to 
any emergency, but this time she was too 
frightened to object, to wriggle in the firm 
grasp, or indeed, to do anything other 
than allow him to take her wherever he 

chose, and he chose the piazza filled 

with guests. 

Mrs. Harcourt, at the farthest end of the 
piazza, busy with her embroidery, did not 
look up when the two appeared. 

“I found this in my room!” said the an- 
gry man. “Anyone who owns it may 


WHO WAS IT 


45 

claim it. This is what has been entering 
rooms, and handling other people’s prop- 
erty.” 

“Oh, mamma! Why don’t you come 
and tell them I don’t do such things !” 

Of course Mrs. Harcourt dropped her 
embroidering frame, and rushed forward, 
snatching Gwen from the big man’s grasp. 

“ ’Twould be useless, because I caught 
her just as she had opened my trunk, and 
was examining all my belongings. The 
best thing to do with your smart girl, is to 
keep her away from hotels, unless you can 
keep a chain on her to keep her from prowl- 
ing,” growled Mr. Buffington. 

“You don’t understand children!” de- 
clared Mrs. Harcourt, as with Gwen, she 
went up the stairway to her room, to which 
the big man responded : “I shouldn’t want 
to if they’re all like that!” 


46 ' PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

Of course the piazza was alive with 
buzzing voices. 

“What a perfectly horrid child!” 

“I’d be ashamed of her if she were mine, 
the little imp!” 

These and similar remarks were to be 
heard on all sides. 

Gwen had been pert and saucy, bold, 
and annoying in many ways, but that a 
little girl could be the person who had 
boldly entered any house, or any room at 
the hotel, poking her impudent little nose 
into any house or room that remained un- 
locked, was really a surprise. 

They had all believed it to be the work 
of a man, but no one could understand 
what prompted him to handle every article 
in the place that he entered, yet never steal 
a thing. Now it was easier to understand. 
Gwen had everything that love could think 


WHO WAS IT 


47 

of, or that wealth could provide, but her 
curiosity was great, and she could not 
keep her mischievous hands off from things 
belonging to others. 

Mrs. Harcourt, angry over what she 
thought was “outrageous rudeness,” 
packed her trunks, and in an hour’s time, 
left the hotel. 


CHAPTER III 


LITTLE SEA NYMPHS 

P OLLY and Rose were walking along 
the beach on the way to call for 
Sprite. They had not decided how to 
spend the morning, but whatever they 
chose to do, they surely would enjoy them- 
selves, for never were three playmates hap- 
pier in each other’s company. 

“A long time ago when you first came 
to Avondale to live at Sherwood Hall, we 
named you Princess Polly. We never 
seemed to think of you as Polly Sherwood, 
your truly name,” Rose said. 

“And I liked you the first day I met you 
by the brook,” Polly said, “and I thought 
Rose Atherton was such a pretty name.” 
48 


LITTLE SEA NYMPHS 49 

“Sprite’s name just fits her,” said Rose, 
a moment later, “for she looks like a sprite, 
or a sea nymph, and so Sprite Seaford 
seems just the name for her. 

“There she is now, coming toward us. 
Let’s run to meet her.” 

“I took the telescope, and looked up the 
beach,” Sprite said, when they met, “and 
kept looking until I saw you. Then I put 
it back on the mantel, and ran to meet you. 
Now come over to the place I call the bay.” 

She led the way, and they followed. 
The bay, as Sprite called it was a place 
where a ledge projected into the water in 
such a way that the incoming waves rushed 
past it, sweeping up onto the sand in a 
curving line. 

It was not much of a bay, but it served 
as a name, and they always knew what she 
meant when she spoke of it. 


50 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

Its shallow water was fine to play in, 
and when the tide went out, there always 
remained a little pool that reflected float- 
ing clouds. 

On its clear surface they skipped flat 
stones, and they marvelled to see how 
skillful was little Sprite. 

“Nine skips, and then a hop! That 
makes ten,” said Polly, “and I can only 
make mine skip seven times.” 

“Oh, but you can do as well as I if you 
practice enough. I’ve always lived here 
at the shore,” Sprite said, “and the flat 
stones have been my toys.” 

It was fine to compete with her, and 
Rose and Polly worked very hard in their 
effort to make a better fling. 

“Eight!” declared Polly, and for a num- 
ber of times, she sent the stones skipping 
eight times across the glassy little pool. 


LITTLE SEA NYMPHS 51 

“Seven!” cried Rose, “and it almost 
went eight, and then didn’t. Wasn’t that 
provoking?” 

“Eight!” she shouted a moment later. 

“Nine!” squealed Polly. “Nine! 
Who’d have believed I could?” 

“I would,” replied Sprite, “because 
you’re trying so hard, and because you can 
do anything.” 

“Oh, I can’t!” Polly said. 

“Well, you sing, and play, and you 
dance beautifully; after all that, just skip- 
ping stones doesn’t seem so very much,” 
Sprite answered quickly. 

“It does to me because I’ve never done 
it before. It’s great fun.” 

The sun was higher, and warm from ex- 
ercise, they sat down in the shadow of the 
cliff to rest, and cool off. 

They talked of the ships that appeared 


52 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
on the horizon, wondering what their car- 
goes might be. They talked of all sorts of 
things, but it was Sprite who gave a 
surprise. 

“Guess who has gone way, way over in 
that big yellow house on the cliff to live. 
Guess!” she said, and her eyes were 
twinkling. 

“Oh, tell us,” said Polly. ’ 

“Yes, you’d better tell us,” said Rose. 
“We couldn’t ever guess.” 

“Won’t you guess?” Sprite asked. 

“What’s the use,” said Polly. “We 
couldn’t guess who it is in a month!” 

“Well, it’s Gwen Harcourt,” Sprite 
said. 

“Gwen Harcourt!” cried Polly and 
Rose in the same breath. “Why, how 
funny. Her mamma said she was tired of 
Cliffmore.” 


LITTLE SEA NYMPHS 53 

“Yes, and she said she didn’t like any of 
the people that were here for the Summer,” 
said Rose. 

“Gwen said her mamma said that, but 
she said the reason was because she was 
provoked, and Gwen said she teased and 
teased her to stay, so she did, and they 
truly are in that big yellow house on the 
cliff. There’s only about a dozen people 
boarding there, and Gwen said it seemed 
more select than the place where she’d 
been staying.” 

“I said: ‘You like Polly Sherwood and 
Rose Atherton,’ and she said, ‘Yes, I like 
them, but it’s the grown people that we 
don’t care for,’ ” concluded Sprite. 

“It was the grown people that didn’t 
like Gwen, and no wonder,” said Rose. 
“Who would like to have her trunks and 
boxes emptied on the floor, and all the hats 


54 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
and dresses pulled over? I don’t believe 
anyone in that yellow house, or any other 
house will like to have her do that.” 

A cool breeze blew in from the ocean, 
and the three sprang to their feet. 

“Let’s pull olf our shoes and stockings 
and dance on the thin edge of the water,” 
cried Sprite. 

“I’ll sing a song mamma taught me.” 

They clasped hands, and gracefully they 
skipped in time with the pretty song. 


‘‘We are water nymphs so free, 

We are merry sisters three. 

When the sunbeams kiss the foam 
From our coral cave we roam. 
And we float up to the strand 
Where we dance upon the sand. 

“When the moon with silvery ray 
Glistens on the tossing spray. 
Then upon the beach we dance. 
Fleet of foot we whirl and prance. 
Whirling, swaying, gay and free. 
Merry water nymphs are we.” 



“Their graceful forms swaying.” 





LITTLE SEA NYMPHS 


55 


It was a pretty sight. 

The three lovely faces, bright eyed, 
and rose tinted cheeks, their graceful forms 
swaying, swinging, whirling, their white 
feet nimbly keeping time to the song that 
Sprite sang. 

The guests at the big yellow house on 
the ledge had already found that Mrs. 
Harcourt was a pleasant woman to talk 
with, but they also had learned that she 
permitted her small daughter to be as rude 
and unpleasant as she chose. It never re- 
quired a great length of time for anyone to 
learn that. 

At the breakfast table, the first morning 
after they had left the hotel and had en- 
gaged rooms at the big house on the ledge, 
Gwen showed her rudeness by declaring 
that she could not eat any of the food that 
was served. 


56 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

Mrs. Harcourt looked around at the 
other guests, remarking : 

“Gwen has such refined taste that quite 
often really good food fails to tempt her.” 

Thus encouraged, Gwen spoke for 
herself : 

“But there’s nothing on this table that 
is good. I wonder any of you can eat it.” 

The guests were disgusted with the silly 
child, and sillier mother. She had acted in 
about the same manner at every meal. 

It happened that she had been up in her 
room over the piazza on the morning that 
her three little friends were dancing upon 
the beach. 

They were too far distant for her to 
guess who they might be. 

The field glasses lay on the dresser, and 
Gwen snatched them, ran to the window, 
and peeped at the dancing figures. 


LITTLE SEA NYMPHS 57 

“Oo — 00! It’s Princess Polly, and 
Rose and Sprite. I’m going right over to 
see them, and dance with them, too!” 

She flung the glasses down into the 
nearest chair, and ran down the stairs, 
across the lawn, and then commenced to 
make her way carefully down the rough 
steps that had been cut in the ledge. 

Even Gwen could not descend those 
steps at high speed. 

Once on the sand she believed she could 
hasten, but the tide never reached the 
ledge upon which the house stood, so the 
sand at its base was dry, and anything but 
easy to hurry over. 

At last she reached the damp part, and 
then how her feet flew over the firm, level 
surface. 

She seemed tireless as she sped along, 
and she ran without stopping until she 


58 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
stood before them. They had not seen 
her approaching, because a high cliff had 
hidden her until she sprang out from be- 
hind it. 

“Hello!” she cried. 

“Hello!” they replied. “Going to 
dance with us?” 

“Of course,” Gwen said shortly. 
“That’s why I came here.” 

She was a fine little dancer, and soon 
the four were tripping lightly over the 
sand, the three bare footed, but Gwen with 
shoes and stockings on, splashing as gaily 
through the shallow water as if she did not 
know that she was ruining a fine pair of 
new shoes. 

Her pale blue stockings would hardly 
be improved by a drenching in salt-water. 

The others had urged her to take them 
off, but for that very reason, she stubbornly 


LITTLE SEA NYMPHS 


59 

refused, and laughed as the water rushed 
about her ankles at the first step. 

She knew that no reproof awaited her. 
Mrs. Harcourt hailed each new prank as 
a sure sign of her small daughter’s orig- 
inality. 

Tormenting the pets that other guests 
had brought to the shore, hiding the em- 
broidery frames that any lady might 
chance to leave lying on a chair, throwing 
hats or wraps over the piazza railing to 
drop at the foot of the cliff, all these things 
Mrs. Harcourt thought extremely amusing. 

A pair of wet shoes would, of course, be 
very funny. Gwen was sure of that. 

“Where’s that new girl?” she asked 
when they paused to rest. 

“She’s gone out fishing with her broth- 
er,” Rose replied, “and they intend to be 
out all day.” 


6o PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 


“Oh, well, I only asked for fun,” Gwen 
said quickly. “She’s pleasant, and I like 
her, but she can’t keep still a minute, and 
that makes me tired.” 

“Why, Gwen Harcourt, neither do 
you,” said Rose, laughing. 

“Me?” said Gwen. “Well, who wants 
to keep still? I didn’t say I wanted to. 
I said it made me tired to watch her, be- 
cause she, — because she doesn’t keep still. 
That’s different!” 

A shout made them turn to look down 
the beach. 

A boy, using his hands as a speaking 
tube, stood looking toward them, and call- 
ing loudly, “Gwen! Gwen!” 

“Oh, that’s Max Deland,” said Gwen. 
“I’ll go and see why he’s calling me.” 

Without saying “Good-bye,” she 
turned, and raced down the beach, and 


LITTLE SEA NYMPHS 6i 

Polly and Rose and Sprite stood watching 
her flying figure. 

On, on she ran until at last, they saw 
that she had reached the boy who had 
shouted to her. 

Then Princess Polly spoke : 

“I wonder why he didn’t run to meet 
her,” she said, “instead of standing stock 
still and waiting ’till she’d run every step 
of the way*?” 

“I don’t wonder,” Sprite said, “because 
I’ve seen him do that so many times, and 
he tells her to ‘do this,’ and ‘do that,’ and 
‘come here,’ and ‘go there,’ and she does 
just as he says every time.” 

“That’s queer,” Rose said, “because she 
never lets us tell her even how to play a 
new game. The minute we start to tell 
her how it is played, she says : ‘Oh, I know 
all about it,’ so of course we stop, and it 


62 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
is Gwen who is always saying, ‘Come and 
do this,’ and ‘You must do it,’ till we get 
tired of being ‘bossed,’ and never doing as 
we wish. She didn’t do that way to-day. 
She danced with us, and never once told 
us how to do it.” 

“Why, Polly!” cried Sprite, “she has 
always known that you were trained for 
dancing, and that you know the prettiest 
dances.” 

The three little friends still stood 
watching Gwen and Max. 

They seemed to be discussing something 
upon which they could not agree, for as 
they watched. Max violently pointed 
toward some distant point on the shore, 
and stamped his foot, and each time Gwen 
would shake her curly head. 

The boy seemed determined, and the 
girl obstinate. 


LITTLE SEA NYMPHS 63 

“I wonder what he is telling her to do?” 
said Sprite, to which Polly replied: 

“I don’t. I wonder why she doesn’t do 
it?” 

“Yesterday he dared her to go out on an 
old plank, and she did it and got a duck- 
ing,” said Sprite. “P’r’aps it’s something 
like that.” 

The two figures still stood out clearly, 
the boy evidently insisting, and the girl 
still shaking her head as if unwilling to 
do as he wished. 

Some bathers came running down to the 
water, their gay colored caps covering their 
hair, their sandals tied with ribbons. 

Polly, Rose, and Sprite turned to see 
them take the first dip, and for a few mo- 
ments watched them romping in the surf. 

When they turned Max and Gwen had 
disappeared. 


64 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

“I do wonder what they were planning 
to do?” said Polly, “and why Gwen 
seemed unwilling to do it, whatever it 
was.” 

“So do I,” said Rose, “because Max al- 
ways wants to do the wildest things,” to 
which Sprite added; “And you can’t often 
find anything wilder than Gwen would 
enjoy.” 

It happened that Max and Gwen had 
disappeared behind a rough shanty that 
laborers were using for a toolhouse. 

“Now don’t be a fraidie-cat!” Max was 
saying. “What makes you act so? I 
called you a ‘brick’ the other day because 
I said you dared to do things that any girl 
but you wouldn’t dare to do. Now here 
you are, acting just the way other girls act. 
’Fore I’d be ’fraid to sail in a tub!” He 
hoped to make her do it. 


LITTLE SEA NYMPHS 65 

“Well, if you’re not afraid to, why don’t 
you do it, instead of asking me to do it?” 
snapped Gwen. 

“Oh, so I can tell the other boys how 
brave you are,” replied Max. 

“They wouldn’t think anything of me a 
doing it,” he continued, quite regardless 
of his grammar, “because I’m a boy, and 
I’m s’posed to be brave, anyway, but you’re 
a girl, and that’s different. 

“Come! Get in! I’ll shove it!” 

Gwen paused for a moment, then : 

“Give me your hand!” she said. 

She was afraid, but her silly vanity 
prompted her to do it. She knew that 
neither of her playmates would dare, and 
Max had promised to tell the other boys 
of the brave feat. 

Max took her hand, and she sprang into 
the tub, crouching on the bottom, as he 


66 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 


shoved it off into water a bit deeper than 
that in which they had been standing. 

The tub was roughly made and any- 
thing but clean. The workmen had used 
it for holding cement, but had emptied it, 
and left it on the beach where Max had 
found it. 

He was very fond of coaxing others to 
do things that he himself would never have 
done. Now, safe on dry land, he stood 
cheering Gwen for her bravery. 

“Well, come and wade out here and get 
me back,” she cried. “I’ve proved that I 
dared to do it, and that’s enough!” 

“Wait till I get the fellows to come and 
see you out there in the tub. They might 
not believe me if I just told them !” shout- 
ed Max, and he raced off at top speed, pay- 
ing no heed to Gwen’s shrieks. No one 
could have guessed if Max heard her and 


LITTLE SEA NYMPHS 67 

yet kept on running, or whether the sound 
of his own footfalls drowned her cries. 


CHAPTER IV 

WHAT MAX DID 

M ax ran up the beach at top speed, 
intent upon finding his “chum,” 
and telling him that Gwen was actually in 
the tub, and then, daring him to race back 
and see her floating about in the shallow 
water. 

Max and Jack had wagered a quantity 
of marbles that no girl, not even Gwen 
Harcourt, would dare to float in the rough 
old tub. 

When Max reached the place where 
Jack had promised to wait for him. Jack 
was no where to be seen. 

“Scamp!” cried Max. “He’s gone off 
so as not to pay over those marbles I won. 


WHAT MAX DID 69 

Well, he’ll not get off so easy, for I’ll find 
him, and make him pay!” 

With never a thought of Gwen, he 
started along the beach to search for Jack. 

“Well, I’d not be mean enough to skin 
out like that,” he cried as he hurried over 
the hard, damp sands. He thought it very 
mean to elude paying the little bet, and as 
he ran, he told himself that he would have 
promptly paid the marbles if he had owed 
them to Jack, which was true. 

Jack was mischievous, but he would 
never have left a little girl in the plight 
in which Max, with all his boasting, had 
left Gwen. 

And although Max Deland searched in 
every place where Jack was likely to be, 
he did not find him. 

“I’ll not hunt for him!” he cried at last, 
“but I’ll make him pay when I catch him !” 


70 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY. 

“Max! Max Deland!” 

The voice was shrill and piping. 

“Hello! Where are you?” Max shouted 
in reply, and the trim waitress from her 
position on the ledge, cried back; 

“It’s not where I am, but where you are 
that’s worrying your mother. You’re the 
first boy I ever saw that had to be called to 
dinner. Come in !” 

She turned and ran into the house, while 
Max rushed toward the big dining-room. 

He thought of Gwen during dinner, but 
he felt no fear for her safety. He believed 
that she had soon become tired of floating 
in the shallow water, had sprung from the 
leaky tub, and for hours had been playing 
with her friends. 

That was not the case, however. Gwen, 
crouching in the tub, had waited quite pa- 
tiently, watching for Max who was to re- 


WHAT MAX DID 71 

turn with Jack, while the tub bobbed and 
danced on the shallow water, and for a 
time she had found it rather amusing. 

The clumsy craft had floated lightly, 
now toward the beach, now away, and she 
felt no fear because as often as a receding 
wave took her a few feet from the beach, 
an incoming wave brought her back. 

Then the unexpected happened. 

The tide had been turning, and a big 
wave snatched at the tub, bearing it far- 
ther out than it had yet been, while the 
next inrolling wave went up onto the 
beach without so much as touching it. 

Gwen screamed with fright, when she 
saw that now the tub was steadily going 
away from the shore. 

There was no one in sight, and she sank 
in a little heap on the bottom of the tub, 
too tired to continue shouting, and fright- 


72 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
ened at the thought of drifting out to sea. 

The gulls flew down and looked at her 
as if wondering what she might be, and 
Gwen cowered, afraid of their great, flap- 
ping wings. 

No one could say what might have hap- 
pened, but just at the moment when her 
last bit of courage had fled, a fortunate 
thing occurred. 

A tiny fishing craft was coming in, and 
as it neared the shore, one of the crew spied 
the floating tub, then a few moments later 
the man exclaimed : 

“Why, there’s a child in that leaky old 
tub, as true as I live!” 

“Hi, there!” he shouted, and Gwen 
looked up, and wildly waved her hands. 

“Sit still!” he commanded, “or some- 
thing’ll happen. Keep still, an’ we’ll pull 
ye in when ye come ’long side.” 


WHAT MAX DID 73 

Very thankful was Gwen when later, 
she found herself safe on the deck, the 
rough tub bobbing away across the waves, 
while the fishermen listened to her story 
of the trick that Max had played. 

“If that boy was mine I know what he’d 
get, for doing a mean trick like that!” said 
one man, to which another responded : 

“And I’d be glad ter help ye give it ter 
him.” 

One would have thought that Mrs. Har- 
court might have been anxious because of 
Gwen’s long absence, and her non-appear- 
ance at the noon meal, but such was not 
the case. 

Some one at the table spoke of Gwen, 
asking if she were ill. 

“Oh, dear no !” Mrs. Harcourt said, with 
a light laugh; “Gwen is never ill, but she 
is so very popular that when she does not 


74 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
appear at meal time, I know that someone 
has urged her to lunch at her home. Gwen 
is dearly loved, and so is constantly being 
coaxed to remain at this house or that.” 

The other guests could not be blamed if 
they wondered who it might be who con- 
tinually longed to have Gwen as a guest. 

When the noon meal was over, the 
guests made their way out onto the piazza, 
seating themselves in little groups for an 
afternoon of chat and gossip. 

Some of the ladies were doing fancy 
work with gay colored silks. Mrs. Har- 
court always brought her embroidery 
frame to the piazza. Not that she did 
much needlework, but she thought it 
looked well to have it with her, even if she 
talked for hours, while the frame lay idle 
in her lap. 

Someone said that the same piece of 


WHAT MAX DID 


75 

work was in the frame that was in it on 
the day of her arrival weeks before. 

She had taken a seat at the far end of 
the piazza, and she now looked about her 
to see who might be near her. 

A tall matron, standing at a short dis- 
tance, turned, and seeing a large rocker 
behind Mrs. Harcourt, walked slowly 
over, and seated herself in it. She had just 
arrived, and so had not yet seen Gwen. 

Here was a chance to talk to a listener 
who did not know her little daughter, and 
Mrs, Harcourt grasped it. 

“You doubtless heard me telling the 
others how everyone loves my small girl,” 
she said. 

“Yes, I heard what you said,” the 
woman replied, in a manner that implied 
her lack of interest, but Mrs. Harcourt did 
not notice that. 


76 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

“Well, really, when you see Gwen, you 
will not wonder, for you, like everyone 
else, will enjoy her. She’s so original.” 

Just at this point those who sat near the 
railing noticed two odd looking figures 
toiling up the rough-hewn stairway on the 
cliff. 

Those who watched them turned to ex- 
change amused glances, and then look 
toward Mrs. Harcourt. 

Quite unaware of what was going on, 
Mrs. Harcourt continued: 

“As I was saying, Gwen is really very 
unusual, and original, and at the same 
time, she is so very sweet tempered, 
that ,” but the sentence was inter- 

rupted by the appearance upon the piazza 
of a rough looking fisherman, and a 
drenched, and very dirty small girl, whose 
sailor frock was wet with sea water. 


WHAT MAX DID 77 

and be-daubed with cement. Her eyes 
were red and swollen with crying, her hair 
had lost its ribbon, and hung about her 
face. Truly she did not look attractive. 

“Could any of you fine ladies put down 
your needles long ’nough ter hear where I 
found this little lass?” said the man, “fer 
she looks like she needed ’tendin’ to.” 

Gwen could at once have run to her 
mother, but she chose to cling to the fisher- 
man’s rough hand, and be gazed upon as 
an abused child. Mrs. Harcourt, trying to 
decide which shade of silk to use, did not 
even look up. She did not dream that 
Gwen had returned. 

So surprised were the guests that, for 
the moment, no one spoke, and the man 
continued : 

“Me’n’ my mates found her floating out 
ter sea in a ol’ tub what the carpenters had 


78 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
been usin’ fer cement, an’ we pulled her 
in. As the tub was a leakin’, I guess ’twas 
’bout time ’less ye wanted her ter be 
drownded.” 

A shrill cry from Mrs. Harcourt fol- 
lowed by the sound of hurrying feet, and 
then : 

“Oh, Gwen, my dear ! Come away from 
that rough man !” she cried, and the instant 
silence showed the disgust that her words 
had provoked. 

“Wal, I s’pose that’s the kind of thanks 
that a poor feller can expect from a lady 
’ristocrat!” said the fisherman as he turned 
to go, “but I’ll say one thing more, an’ that 
is that the young lad named Max is ’spon- 
sible for the mischief. It was him what 
coaxed the little lass inter that ol’ tub, an’ 
then run off ter play.” 

“Three cheers for this man!” cried a 


WHAT MAX DID 79 

young fellow who had listened intently, 
and the guests responded with a will, and 
Mrs. Harcourt from the hall whence she 
had vanished with Gwen, wondered what 
it was all about. 

She considered herself a cultured 
woman, yet she had not spoken one grate- 
ful word to the man who had rescued 
Gwen from her perilous position! 

Of course Max denied that he had in- 
tended to play a trick on Gwen. He was 
a coward, and a coward rarely cares to 
“own up” when guilty. 

Instead, he insisted that he only “dared” 
her to get into the tub, but that he never 
thought she would stay in it a moment 
after he was out of sight. 

His mother believed him ; the guests did 
not, but little cared Max. So long as she 
thought him perfect, he was quite happy. 


8o PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
because he could do, at all times, exactly 
as he chose. That he usually chose to be 
very disagreeable was not to be wondered 
at. 

His mother thought his pranks most 
amusing, and his saucy speeches, smart, so 
he was quite content. 

The oddest part of all was that Gwen 
really liked Max Deland. He was always 
getting her into scrapes, and as soon as 
she had escaped from one, she was ready 
for another. 

Max never helped her. Instead, he left 
her to help herself. Gwen was wilful with 
all of her girl playmates, but she would 
agree to anything that Max proposed, so 
when, in the afternoon of the following 
day, he told her that he was going to take 
a long tramp, Gwen was wild to know just 
where he was going, and coaxed to go too. 


WHAT MAX DID 8i 

''Where are you going?” she asked for 
the third time. 

“Oh, somewhere great!” Max said with 
a provoking chuckle. 

“It would serve you just right if I said 
I didn’t care where you went, but I do 
care, because I want to go too,” Gwen said. 

“I only wanted to tease you,” Max re- 
plied, “and I’ll let you go with me, Gwen. 
Turn ’round and look at that high hill over 
back of the house where we’re staying. 
I’m going to climb to the top of that hill, 
and go down on the other side, just to see 
what there is ’round behind that hill.” 

“Then why don’t you walk around it, 
instead of climbing?” questioned Gwen. 

“Smarty!” Max said, at he same time 
looking very unpleasant. 

“Oh, I don’t care,” Gwen hastened to 
say. “I like to climb. Come on !” 


82 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 


It did not look like much of a hill, but 
it proved to be hard to climb, for its sides 
were steep, and covered with wiry grass. 

The sun was hot, and long before reach- 
ing the top, Gwen wished that she had 
not started at all. 

Twice she stopped to take short pieces 
of stems or dry twigs from her slippers, and 
often the thorny branches of the low 
bushes scratched her bare arms. 

Her sleeves were short, and thus her 
arms were unprotected. Max’s arms were 
covered by his jacket sleeves. 

“What a fuss you make over a little 
scratch!” he said, sharply. 

‘Tm not fussing over a scratch!” 
snapped Gwen. “I’m fussing over ’bout a 
hundred scratches !” 

“Oh, — o — o!” Max drawled, as if he 
doubted the number. 


IV HAT MAX DID 83 

“Well, look!” cried Gwen, holding her 
little arms red with scratches. 

“Too bad,” Max said, and Gwen, sur- 
prised, and pleased, followed him, as he 
made his way just ahead of her, holding 
back the bushes. 

“Oh, Max, you’re good,” she said, and 
Max blushed at her praise. He thought 
himself exceedingly good, but he was de- 
lighted that Gwen thought so. 

“This hill didn’t look so very high, 
when we stood on the beach and looked 
back at it,” said Gwen. 

“N-no,” admitted Max, “but all the 
same I’m glad we started early, and we’ll 
reach the top ’fore long. Then we’ll see 
what’s on the other side, and when we 
climb down, we can just run around on the 
level ground, and tell the folks where 
we’ve been, and what a climb we had !” 


84 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

“Oh, yes,” agreed Gwen, and once more 
they pushed forward, and up toward the 
summit, that seemed, no matter how long 
they climbed, to be not the least bit nearer. 

For a time they climbed in silence, when, 
all at once, Gwen tripped over a loose 
root, and promptly sat down. 

“I’ll have to rest a few minutes,” she 
said. 

“I’ll sit down because you do,” Max 
said. He would not say that he, too, was 
tired. 

He was not contented long to sit rest- 
ing, and soon the two were once more 
trudging up the steep incline. Max lead- 
ing the way, and Gwen, following close 
behind him. 

“We’re ’most to the top,” he said, at 
last, to which Gwen replied : 

“I don’t believe it ! The more we climb. 


WHAT MAX DID 85 

the farther away it seems, and I do believe 
that horrid old hilltop moves away as fast 
as it sees us coming!” 

“Now, Gwen, you know better! Just 
look!” Max said, and Gwen looked. 

“Well, — the top isn’t any farther off 
than it was the last time I looked up,” she 
said, grudgingly. 

She knew that it looked nearer, but she 
could not bear to say that. 

“It’s nearer, and you know it!” Max 
declared, stoutly. “Come on!” 

“Wait till I fix my shoe,” wailed Gwen. 

“I’ll bet that’s the tenth time you’ve 
stopped to pull your shoe off since we 
started to climb this hill,” Max cried in 
disgust. 

Gwen was about to say that she should 
stop again if she wished to, but a glance at 
Max caused her to change her mind. His 


86 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
face was far from pleasing, so without a 
word, she fastened her shoe, and silently 
the two tramped on. 

Max was wishing that he had taken the 
trip alone. 

Gwen heartily wished that she had re- 
mained on the beach. 

She was not only tired, but her feet were 
sore and blistered. 

Max walked ahead, and Gwen found it 
hard work to keep up. 

“Oh, Max!” she cried at last, “Do wait 
for me!” but Max either did not hear, or 
hearing, refused to wait, and Gwen, una- 
ble to take another step, sank down on the 
coarse grass and burst into tears. 


CHAPTER V 

WHAT MAX FOUND 



WEN was very angry. Max had 


taken her on the long tramp, and 
now had become impatient because she 
was tired, and had left her to choose be- 
tween immediately following him, or lag- 
ging behind. 

It was almost twilight, but Gwen was 
forced to rest for a few moments, at least, 
before taking another step. 

“P’r’aps I can run, and catch up with 
Max, if I sit here and rest a while,” she 
said. 

Max, careless boy that he was, walked 
straight ahead, not even turning to look 
back, to learn if Gwen were following. 


88 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

Gwen watched his sturdy little figure as 
it stood out against the sky, and envied 
him because he seemed not the least bit 
weary, while Max, sure that she was 
watching, took extra long steps to show 
what a vigorous fellow he was. 

When he had reached the top of the hill, 
he would have been glad to rest, but he 
wished to prove that he was tireless, so he 
at once commenced to make his way across 
the level plain upon which he found him- 
self, and then to descend the rugged 
hillside. 

Sometimes a twig snapped overhead, and 
then he would next be surprised by step- 
ping upon what proved to be a rolling 
stone, that would slip from under his foot, 
and go rattling on ahead of him. 

The long walk down the far side of the 
hill was less cheerful than the upward 


WHAT MAX FOUND 89 

climb had been, and while he would not 
for the world have admitted it, he missed 
Gwen, and her constant chatter. 

He was beginning to feel tired, and he 
would have been glad to sit down and rest, 
but lest Gwen should be on her way to 
overtake him, and laugh at him for rest- 
ing, he kept on. 

Once he looked over his shoulder hoping 
to see that she was now following, but she 
was not in sight, and again he pushed for- 
ward. Not a bit cared he if Gwen were 
afraid. 

“If she’d kept up with me, she needn’t 
have been afraid. Nothing would scare 
her if I Oh — 00 — 00!” 

With a frightened yell, he tripped over 
what appeared to be a long bundle, which, 
however, proved to be the legs of a sleep- 
ing tramp. 


90 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

“Ye little varmint! Walkin’ all over a 
man ! I’d serve ye right if I tied yer arms 
an’ legs tergether, and pitched yer down 
inter the valley beyant there !” howled the 
angry man, as he turned over for another 
nap. 

Max, believing that the man was chas- 
ing him, raced down the steep hillside, 
stumbling over roots, and twigs that lay in 
his way, sliding on rolling stones, and 
catching at low hanging branches to save 
himself, he at last, from weariness, stum- 
bled, and fell sprawling over a stump that 
the darkness had hidden. 

It happened that Gwen, becoming a bit 
timid because of the shadows of twilight, 
had risen stiffly from her seat on a low rock, 
and was hastening after Max, when she 
heard the boy’s shout, and then the angry 
words of the tramp, and quickly as she 



“Now indeed she 


was afraid/' 









. . • 


I 




« % \ 

% 





f - % 


• i 


« • 




I 


• 1 


t 


t ] 










I 



V 


d 

« * 


V. 


T 






•» 


• • 
« 


'I 






WHAT MAX FOUND 91 

had come, she ran back to her perch upon 
the rock. 

Now, indeed, she was afraid. Alone on 
a wooded hilltop ! Would she have to stay 
there all night? Would some one come 
for her? How would they know where she 
was? 

She tried to think that Max, on reach- 
ing the house would tell of her plight, and 
urge someone to come for her, but she 
knew that Max was a coward, and that he 
never liked to tell anything that might 
cause others to blame him. 

Meanwhile the tramp slept soundly. 
No thought of the frightened boy troubled 
his dreams, and of the little girl who had 
drawn back into the shadow of the trees, 
he knew nothing. 


At the big yellow house on the Cliff, 


92 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
there was great excitement. Mrs. Har- 
court was so nearly frantic that the best 
efforts of her friends failed to comfort her. 

Earlier in the day she had gaily laughed 
at Gwen’s absence at the noon meal, and 
if she was at all disturbed because of her 
sailing trip in the leaky cement tub, she 
did not show it. 

But that twilight should be hanging over 
the sea, and night fast approaching, and 
Gwen out of sight for the second time was 
really enough to frighten any woman, 
even if she were far less nervous than Mrs. 
Harcourt. 

A searching party was formed, not one 
of whom had the slightest idea where to 
look, when, just as the men were about to 
start out, a small boy appeared in the 
driveway ; a boy who seemed to wish to be 
unnoticed. 


WHAT MAX FOUND 


93 


“Hello! I say, Max! You usually 
know where the little Harcourt girl is. Do 
you know now?” said a little man on the 
outside of the group. 

“Le’me go!” snarled Max, “I want 
some supper,” and he tried to squirm out 
of the firm grasp of the little man’s hand. 

“Not till you’ve answered,” said a tall, 
athletic fellow. 

“Come now, little chap, speak up !” Mrs. 
Deland, faultless dressed now appeared. 

“Oh, it is really absurd to think my little 
son has the least idea where ” 

“It may be. Madam,” the young man 
replied, “but I’ll just ask him again, and 
we’ll see how he answers. “Say, Max! 
Do you say you don’t know where she is?” 

“I don’t know where she is just now,” 
the boy answered sullenly. 

“Did you know a little while ago?” 


94 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

“Oh, dear! Max is so sensitive. This 
sort of thing will quite upset him I’m 
sure,” said Mrs. Deland. 

The tall young man made no reply, but 
to Max he said : 

“Tell us where she is, and we’ll go and 
get her, but if you won’t tell us, we’ll take 
you along to show us the way. Which will 
you do?” 

More tired than he would have cared to 
admit. Max dared not refuse to tell, for he 
had no desire to repeat the fearfully long 
walk that he had taken. 

And when he told how little Gwen had 
declared herself unable to follow him, the 
disgust of his listeners was complete. 

“So as the small girl was tired out with 
the long trip on which you had taken her, 
you left her to be a little tenant of the 
lonely wooded hilltop for the night!” 


WHAT MAX FOUND 95 

“A brave act, truly. Your mother must 
be proud of such a manly boy !” said a stout 
man who had joined the group. 

“I told her to come along, and I guess 
she could have if she’d wanted to,” Max 
said stolidly. 

In disgust, and without another word to 
the boy or his mother, the group, with one 
accord, turned toward the sandy road that 
led toward the narrow path up the steep 
hillside. 

They were sturdy men, well used to 
long tramps over rugged paths, and soon 
they came upon Gwen, huddled close 
against a high ledge, in an effort to keep 
w'arm. 

She had been too frightened to cry. She 
had heard the angry shout of the tramp 
when Max had stumbled over him, and 
now, although he had not uttered a word 


96 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
since, nor had she heard a footstep, she 
trembled and constantly looked about 
her to learn if he were approaching. 

As the searchers made their way toward 
the crest of the hill, the dry twigs that lay 
upon the ground, broke under their feet, 
and the underbrush snapped as they 
pushed the low branches back. As they 
approached the rock where Gwen was sit- 
ting, she heard their voices, and believing 
that instead of one tramp, an entire band 
of tramps was coming toward her, she 
screamed with fright, and slipping from 
the rock, cowered on the grass, trying to 
make herself as small as possible. 

They had heard her outcry, however, 
and now they called her name. 

“Gwen! Little Gwen! Where are 
you*? We’ve come to find you!” 

Crying out to them, she hurried forward, 


WHAT MAX FOUND 97 

her arms outstretched, as she stumbled 
over the rough, coarse grass, over roots, 
and dry sticks that lay in her path, until, 
in the effort to run, she pitched and would 
have fallen, had not the big man of the 
party caught her, and swung her to a safe 
place upon his shoulder. 

For once Gwen was truly grateful, and 
closely she clung about the big man’s neck, 
so glad was she, that he and his friends had 
clambered up to her lonely perch on the 
big rock at the summit of the hill. 

Once she whispered in his ear. “There 
was a big, horrid tramp up on that hill. I 
know, because I heard him shout at Max. 
I wonder if he hurt Max, and I wonder 
where Max is now. Did some other men 
go hunting for him, just as you hunted 
for me?” 

“No need of hunting for Max,” the big 


98 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
man replied, “for he took good care of him- 
self, and came sneaking home, safe and 
sound, while he left you, little girl, to look 
out for yourself as well as you could.” 

With care they made their way down 
the rugged hillside, and Gwen was so 
happy that she sang snatches of songs, and 
someone in the rear whistled to keep her 
company. 

\rrived at the house, Gwen had a fine 
welcome. 

She was not generally liked, because of 
her pert, saucy ways, but the fact that she 
had been lost, and now had returned was 
surely a reason for rejoicing. 

“Where’s Max?” queried a young man 
who had been one of the searchers. 

“The dear boy was so tired with his 
tramp that he asked to go at once to bed. 
He was really fatigued, for usually he 


WHAT MAX FOUND 99 

coaxes to remain up,” Mrs. Deland said, 
‘"and really,” she continued, “the only 
reason that he did not take Gwen along 
with him was because she said that she 
must rest a while.” 

“I suppose it was impossible for him to 
wait with her,” said someone in the crowd. 

“Max is very tender hearted,” Mrs. De- 
land responded, “and he said he thought 
if he waited, she might start before she was 
sufficiently rested.” 

With much dignity, Mrs. Deland turned 
from the piazza, and entered the house. 
She knew that Max was at fault, and that 
everyone in the group thought so. 

She would not acknowledge that her 
little son could be in the wrong. Max, ac- 
cording to her ideas, should be praised, and 
approved of at all times. 

Gwen was the center of interest, and 


loo PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
that pleased her greatly. Mrs. Harcourt 
was delighted, fairly beamed upon those 
who crowded around her small daughter, 
to ask all about her long tramp and how it 
seemed to be alone on the wooded hilltop. 

Of course the story lost nothing in the 
telling. 

Gwen made it really thrilling, but after 
a time, even her mother felt that the tale 
was becoming rather lurid for a strictly 
truthful account, and she dragged Gwen 
away to the hall, and up the stairway, but 
she made herself absurd. 

“Really, Gwen, you should be a bit care- 
ful,” she said, as gently as if afraid of of- 
fending her small girl. “If your wonder- 
ful imagination made you think you saw 
eyes peering at you from behind those 
tree-trunks, you should remember that 
common people might not believe you. 


WHAT MAX FOUND loi 

Ordinary people could not understand.”' 

“I don’t care if they don’t!” Gwen said 
stoutly. “I shall tell what I want to, and 
they can believe it or not, just as they 
choose.” 

“I surely am the mother of a genius,” 
murmured the silly woman. 

A few days later, great excitement pre- 
vailed among the children of the Summer 
colony at Cliifmore, and their elders were 
sufficiently interested to talk of the news 
on the piazza, the beach, the little park, at 
breakfast, at lunch, and at dinner. 

“It is really to be quite an affair,” said 
one lady, to which her friend replied : 

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world, for I 
heard that no expense had been spared, and 
that the whole thing will be as beautiful 
as a dream,” 


102 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

“Who planned it, or who is managing 
it?” questioned another, to which yet an- 
other who now joined the group replied : 

“Captain Atherton is ‘backing’ it, I hear, 
and so, of course. Rose will be the central 
figure in the pageant.” 

Yes, that was the cause of the excite- 
ment. There was to be a grand pageant, 
and the children would be the principal 
actors. 

“Is Gwen Harcourt to be in the pa- 
geant?” someone asked, but before anyone 
could reply Mrs. Harcourt joined them. 

“Is my little Gwen to be in it? Why, 
what a question !” she said. “They would 
hardly have a pageant without her.” 

“I suppose not,” someone said, in a tone 
of disgust, but Mrs. Harcourt did not no- 
tice that. 

“Well, no,” she responded. “I hardly 


WHAT MAX FOUND 103 

think they could, because beside the part 
that Gwen will actually take, she will be 
a great help in other ways. Her ideas are 
so original, and she is always so willing 
to tell others how things should be done, 
that she, really, is a wonderful help. The 
committee arranging the pageant con- 
stantly ask her advice.” 

“I wonder if they asked Gwen’s per- 
mission to have the pageant at all?” grum- 
bled a small boy who stood near the ladies 
who had been talking. 

Yes, it was to be a great event at Cliff- 
more, and everyone was interested. 

“What are you going to be, and what 
are you going to wear?” were the ques- 
tions oftenest asked, and groups of merry, 
laughing children sat chatting on the piaz- 
zas, or strolling along the beach, talking, 
always talking of the pageant. 


104 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

It was, indeed, to be a grand and beau- 
tiful procession that would make its way 
along the beach. 

The children were greatly excited, and 
each was interested in the costumes that 
her playmates were intending to wear, as 
well as that in which she would herself 
appear. 

There had been an odd happening. 
Captain Atherton had chosen the list of 
characters to be represented, and Mrs. 
Sherwood had written a clear description 
of the costumes to be worn. 

All were pleased with the parts assigned 
them, save Gwen Harcourt and Max 
Deland. 

“I shall not be one of the mermaids,” 
Gwen had boldly declared. “If I can’t be 
the Water Queen, I’ll not be a water fairy 
at all!” 


WHAT MAX FOUND 105 

“Very well,” Captain Atherton had said 
quietly, “I will find someone to take your 
place.” 

Gwen was surprised. She had felt sure 
that Captain Atherton would beg her to 
remain, and that he would also give to her 
the part of the Water Queen. 

Max had had a similar experience. He 
had expressed his dislike for the part given 
him, and had been told that the parts once 
given out could not be changed. 

“Come on, Gwen!” he had said. “We 
can get up something for ourselves!” 

“What do you mean?” she asked. 

“Come on over to the big lodge, and I’ll 
tell you. We’ll have fun enough. You’ll 
see!” 


CHAPTER VI 

THE SEA king’s NYMPHS 

E veryone, everything was ready 
for the grand carnival and pageant. 
The children were more than ready. 
They were eager. 

Their costumes were completed, and 
they knew exactly how they were expected 
to pose, so that each should do her part to 
make the procession beautiful. 

Even the sun seemed intent upon doing 
his share, and as he rose from the water, 
appeared to be smiling upon sea and land. 

At the far end of the beach was a huge 
canvas tent, and all of the “trappings,” or 
“properties” were stored beneath its shel- 
ter. From this tent the procession would 

io6 


THE SEA KING’S NYMPHS 107 
start, and pass along the beach, where hun- 
dreds of spectators would be watching 
from the tiers of seats that had been 
erected along the route. 

Princess Polly, Rose, and Sprite stood 
waiting to take their places. 

“What do you suppose Gwen and Max 
meant?” Polly asked. 

“When they said they’d get up some- 
thing of their own?” said Rose. 

“Why, yes,” Polly said. “Don’t you re- 
member how they spoke?” 

“Oh, yes, I know,” Rose replied, “but 
Gwen and Max often say they’ll do things, 
and then they don’t do at all as they say 
they will. They speak like that when 
they’re provoked, and then they forget all 
about it.” 

“Do you know,” Sprite said, “I think 
this time they’ll remember what they said. 


io8 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

and I’m just wondering what they will 

do.” 

A trumpet called the children to order, 
and soon all was bustle and excitement. 

Then when all were ready, the long line 
of lovely children attired in rainbow hues, 
with here and there an adult figure to add 
dignity to the pageant, slowly made its 
way along the beach, receiving cheers and 
applause from the delighted on-lookers. 

First came a group of thirty of the vil- 
lage children, dressed as water sprites, and 
blowing on soft-toned silver horns. 

Their tunics were pale rose, and their 
cheeks were as pink as their draperies. 

Gilded sandals were on their feet, and 
they blew their silvery notes with a will. 

Following the water sprites, came a 
troop of small boys tripping along, and 
dressed as little mermen, their green scales 


THE SEA . KING’S NYMPHS 109 

glittering in the warm sunlight, their caps 
of braided seaweed bordered with tiny 
scallop shells. 

They carried triangles, and gaily they 
marked the time, laughing as they tramped 
along. 

There were floats upon which were 
grouped children and grown-ups in tab- 
leaux representing historical events. 

There was a tall may-pole carried by a 
man dressed as a jester, and boys and girls 
in early English peasant costumes held the 
ends of the long fluttering ribbons, laugh- 
ing as the crowd applauded. 

Group after group passed along, and 
one that called forth loud cheering was 
composed of boys and girls dressed as little 
farmers and their chubby wives. 

The small boys wore overalls and straw 
hats, the girls wore pink sunbonnets, pink 


no PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
gowns, and blue aprons, but both boys and 
girls carried rakes on their shoulders, and 
gay companions they seemed to be. 

The greatest delight, the loudest cheer- 
ing greeted the great gilded chariot, drawn 
by six white horses hired for the occasion 
by Captain Atherton. 

Each steed boasted a white harness, and 
from the head of each floated streamers of 
green ribbon. 

Who would ever have dreamed that the 
imposing Sea King who stood so proudly 
in his chariot firmly grasping the reins, 
was none other than Captain Seaford, the 
father of little Sprite. 

A white wig and beard had changed 
him completely, and his costume of sea- 
green draperies was most becoming. 

In his left hand he carried a gilded tri- 
dent. 


THE SEA KING’S NYMPHS in 
In the chariot with him as his nymphs 
were Princess Polly, in pink, Rose Ather- 
ton in blue, and little Sprite in yellow, 
three charming nymphs, surely. 

Brownies, elves, gnomes, a crowd of 
small boys dressed to represent any num- 
ber of different kinds of fishes were fol- 
lowed by girls among whom might be seen 
Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, and a host 
of other fairy tale heroines. 

There were little hunters, and fisher- 
men, but all agreed that the Sea King with 
his nymphs, his chariot and his fine horses 
was best of all. 

Polly, Rose, and Sprite were just saying 
that Gwen and Max had kept out of sight 
in spite of their declaration that they 
would be in the procession, in costumes of 
their own choosing, when Polly happened 
to turn, and look back. 


1 12 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

“Oo — oo — 00 ! Look!” she cried, and 
Rose and Sprite, and even the stately Sea 
King turned to learn what had startled 
her. 

Too surprised to speak, they watched 
a little team with two occupants, ap- 
proaching at headlong speed. 

A smart cart drawn by a gray donkey 
came tearing down the beach. Max 
dressed as a farmer, with blue overalls and 
straw hat, was making a desperate effort 
to control the donkey, while Gwen in a 
chintz frock and pink sunbonnet sat close 
beside him, clinging to her seat in abject 
fear. 

Evidently they had been late in getting 
started, and had endeavored to gain suf- 
ficient speed to “catch up” with the pro- 
cession. 

Max had been vexed that at first the 


THE SEA KING’S NYMPHS 113 
balky little beast could not be induced to 
hasten, and for, a long time he continued 
to walk at a fearfully slow pace, paying no 
heed to shouting, or a taste of the whip. 

Then, when Max put down the whip, 
and let the reins lie loosely across the little 
creature’s back, Neddy suddenly decided 
to go, and go he did, galloping along at a 
rate that set the light cart swaying from 
side to side, and threatening, at any mo- 
ment, to throw Max and Gwen out. 

“Stop him ! Do stop him !” cried Gwen, 
“He’s running away!” 

“I cant!” screamed Max. “First he 
wouldn’t go, and now he won’t stop!” 

The procession halted, and a big boy 
sprang forward, endeavoring to snatch at 
the bridle. 

The intention was good, but the don- 
key, maddened that anyone should try to 


1 14 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

Stop him, shied, and the boy and girl were 
hurled out upon the sand. 

Max turned a complete somersault and 
came up on his feet, declaring himself un- 
hurt, but Gwen took an entirely different 
view of the matter. 

She was not hurt, but her temper was 
decidedly ruffled. 

“Well, I declare !” she cried, “I do think 
everyone is horrid, but I think Max is just 
a little horrider than the rest!” 

“Why, Gwen, he did his best to stop, 
but the donkey just wouldn’t,” said Sprite. 

“Well, I wouldn’t have been spilled if 
I hadn’t been riding with Max, would I?” 
cried Gwen. “Something always happens 
when I go anywhere with Max. Funny I 
don’t ever remember it. Just as soon as 
something’s happened, away I go some- 
where else with him.” 


THE SEA KING’S NYMPHS 115 

Gwen could not imagine why they all 
laughed. 

Meanwhile the donkey having run as 
far as he cared to, stood far down the 
beach, looking out across the waves, as 
calmly as if he could stand there for hours. 
Indeed one could hardly think that he was 
the same little beast that, a short time be- 
fore, had bolted so furiously. 

Captain Atherton, who had left the 
crowd, and quietly followed Neddy, now 
quickly approached him. He made no at- 
tempt to escape, but instead, allowed him- 
self to be led as gently as if he really pre- 
ferred to go that way. 

Very meek he looked, as with the Cap- 
tain’s firm hand on the bridle, he ap- 
proached the crowd that had watched him 
when he ran wildly along the beach. 

Max was more than willing to clamber 


ii6 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
into the cart, and for the remainder of the 
route, be a part of the procession. Gwen, 
first flatly refused to ride, but after much 
coaxing she finally consented, and took her 
place beside Max, and so odd was the ex- 
pression of her face that Max afterward 
said that he could not tell whether she was 
“mad or scared.” 

“Half mad and half scared,” Gwen re- 
plied. “Mad to have to ride again with 
you, and scared for fear Neddy would run 
away again.” 

The donkey behaved very well, how- 
ever. He had run all he cared to for one 
while, and he walked along behind the Sea 
King’s chariot, as quietly as if he had never 
once dreamed of running away. 

After a while, Gwen began to be so glad 
that she was indeed, in the pageant, that 
she looked about her, and actually smiled 


THE SEA KING’S NYMPHS 117 
when some of the other children spoke to 
her. 

At the end of the route, a fine lunch was 
served in a pavilion that looked out on 
the beach. 

Captain Atherton had provided it, and 
it was heartily enjoyed by all who had 
taken part in the pageant, as well their 
friends who were also invited. 

After the good things had been par- 
taken of, the little guests danced to the 
music furnished by an orchestra that had 
been playing during the feasting, and eyes 
sparkled, and cheeks grew rosy with ex- 
citement. 

It had been a delightful day, and for 
days afterward the children and those who 
had been spectators, talked of the lovely 
pageant, that had made its glittering way 
along the beach. 


ii8 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

Captain Seaford sat just outside the 
door of his house, mending a net, or rather, 
attempting to mend it, for his mind was 
not upon his work, and from time to time 
he let the net lie on his knees, while he 
looked out across the dancing waves as he 
was hoping to see a vessel appear on the 
horizon. 

He would sit thus for a time, and then 
shake his head and resume his work. 

A dancing, springing footstep brought 
Sprite to the door, and as soon as she saw 
how eagerly he scanned the sea, she crept 
softly toward him, and laying her hand 
upon his shoulder, peeped around into his 
eyes. 

“What you thinking of. Pa?” she asked 
quickly. 

“Nothing much little girl,” he said 
gently. 


THE SEA KING’S NYMPHS 119 

She lifted her fore-finger, nodding 
wisely as she spoke. 

“It might not be mucn,” she said, “but 
it’s enough so you worry about it. Tell 
me, Pa, what’s vexing you.” 

After a moment in which both were si- 
lent, she spoke again, but with her soft 
little arms about his neck. 

“Was it about Ma, or me you were 
thinking?” she asked. “You looked so 
sober, that I know it was about someone 
that you cared for.” 

“I was thinking of you both. Sprite,” 
he said, as he drew her closer, “and of the 
vessel that is almost a week overdue. If 
she comes in, the venture that I made on 
her cargo, will bring what some folks 
would call a small sum of money, but to 
us, it would be a small fortune.” 

“A week overdue! I’m not so selfish 



120 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
that I don’t give a thought for those on 
board that have perished if she’s lost. 
That’s simply doubled the worry.” 

A warm tear fell on his rough hand, and 
he looked up quickly. 

“Tut, tut! Little Sprite! Don’t cry 
yet. It may be that she’s only delayed, 
and will sail into port, with all hands on 
board and her cargo safe. You’re too 
young to worry now. Cheer up ! Pa’s not 
really worrying yet, only wondering, little 
Sprite, wondering.” 

That would have settled the matter for 
some children, but Sprite saw more clearly, 
thought more deeply than does the aver- 
age child, and she knew that he was trying 
to cheer and comfort her while at heart he 
was deeply concerned, for the fate of the 
vessel for which he had been eagerly 
waiting. 


THB SEA KING’S NYMPHS 121 

"But she could come in now and be all 
right, couldn’t she?” Sprite asked. "Or is 
it so late that you almost know that some- 
thing has happened to her?” 

"No, no. Sprite. It’s not too late for her 
to arrive safe and sound, but as the days 
pass I catch myself watching a bit closer 
for her coming. Why did the tears come. 
Sprite ? I never like to have you grieving, 
dear.” 

"The tears always come if I think any- 
thing has disappointed you, or Ma,” Sprite 
said, softly. "That’s why I tried so hard 
to win the prize last Spring, when all the 
other pupils were working for it, too. I 
didn’t care half so much about getting it 
for myself, as for you.” 

He drew her yet closer. 

"Dear little Sprite,” he said. 

"And now I’m going to hope that the 


122 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
vessel will come sailing in with a big load 
of luck on board. I’ll tell you one thing; 
I saw the moon over my right shoulder last 
night, and all the sailors say that’s lucky.” 

Captain Seaford laughed at this bit of 
superstition offered to him as a crumb of 
comfort. 

She laughed with him, and stooping, 
picked up a small star fish. 

“I’ll toss this up three times. If it comes 
down on the sand, twice out of three times 
right side up, it will be the same as saying 
that the vessel is safe, and will return all 
right.” 

Three times she tossed it up, only a few 
inches from the sand lest it break. 

“Once! Right side up!” she cried, a 
rippling laugh following her words. 

“Twice! Wrong side up! Oh, Pa, 
w'hich will it be next time?” 


THE SEA KING’S NYMPHS 123 

A moment she stood irresolute as if half 
fearing to test their luck the third time. 
She turned the star fish over and over in 
her hand, then, as if she thought waiting 
useless, she tossed it lightly up. 

“Oo — 00 ! Look ! Look Pa !” she cried, 
“It’s right side up! Pa, I do believe the 
vessel will come in safely. My! 
Wouldn’t it have been awful if the star 
fish had fallen the other side up?” 

“My little Sprite is a great comfort,” 
he said, “and the tossing of the star fish is 
harmless fun, but I’d not like to think that 
you’d believe all the superstitious yarns 
that the sailors tell.” 

“Oh, no,” was the earnest reply. “I 
know that some of them could not be true, 
but there’s one funny one that a sailor 
down on the pier told yesterday. 

“He said you could go down stairs back- 


124 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
wards after dark, and look into a mirror 
you held in your hand, and see something, 
I don’t know what, but I’m going to try it. 
I’ll try it just to know what I’d see, or to 
find out what would happen. He said 
something was sure, just sure to happen.” 

“The something that would happen 
would be that you’d fall, and perhaps 
break your pretty neck,” Captain Seaford 
said, “but as to what you’d see in the glass ! 
Why, that is all nonsense. Here and there 
is a sailor that’s as full of such silly 
notions as a weather vane. 

“That sort of sailor listens to all the 
yarns he hears, believes them all, tells them 
all, and generally he isn’t any too careful 
to tell them just as he heard them. 

“He’s apt to add just a little of his own 
nonsense to the yarn he heard to make it 
interesting.” 


CHAPTER VII 

A WEDDING AT CLIFFMORE 


T he playmates who were at Cliff- 
more for the Summer were having 
a delightful time, but in a quiet way, John 
Gifford, or “Gyp,” as he was still called, 
was very happy, and also very busy. 

At the end of the school year in June, he 
had stood at the head of his class, and now, 
employed by Captain Atherton, he knew 
that he was respected, and that he had hon- 
estly earned that respect. 

“Fm to be the hired ‘man’ on his place,” 
he said, “so I’ll be earning something, 
while I study evenings, for I mean to get 
somewhere worth while. I don’t mind if 
anyone in Avondale who likes me, calls me 

I2S 



126 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
“Gyp.” It sounds friendly, but I’ll not 
always be known as Gyp, the gypsy boy. 
When I get out in the world I’ll be John 
Gifford, and I mean business. I don’t 
know yet just what I’ll do, but Captain 
Atherton will advise me, and with his help. 
I’ll be able to decide.” 

Of course there were a few who con- 
tinued to shake their heads, and say that 
“A gypsy is always a gypsy, and what can 
you expect of a boy brought up, or rather 
permitted to grow up, as Gyp has been?” 

The larger number of the people of 
Avondale seemed determined to take a 
more cheerful view of it, and to believe 
in the boy, even as he now seemed to be- 
lieve in himself. 

Gyp proved that he needed no watch- 
ing, for he commenced work early each 
day, and never stopped until night. 


A WEDDING AT CLIFF MORE 127 

The lawn was carefully clipped, the 
flowers and lawn were given an abundance 
of water, vines were trained, and shrubs 
were trimmed, until after a month of Gyp’s 
care, the place looked finer than ever be- 
fore. 

Captain Atherton left Cliff more one day 
to visit Avondale, and get some papers 
that he remembered having left in his safe. 

As he walked up the path he noticed 
what fine care the place had received dur- 
ing his absence. The lawn had never 
looked so green, the plants and shrubs had 
never blossomed so freely. 

As he stood looking about him the click 
of the lawn mower caused him to turn just 
as Gyp came around the corner of the 
house. 

“You’ve worked wonders here. Gyp,” 
the Captain said. “I always had a fairly 


128 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
good lawn, and much could be said of 
the vines and the flowers, but everything 
looks far better than it ever did before. 
Where did you get the knowledge to do the 
work so well, and so successfully?” 

“I asked the gardener down in the Cen- 
ter, the one who takes care of the parks, to 
tell me how to do my best for you, and 
then — I did it,” Gyp said, simply. 

“Work like that at whatever you under- 
take, and you’ll be pretty sure to achieve 
success,” said Captain Atherton. 

“I mean to,” Gyp replied, firmly, and as 
he looked after the fine figure ascending 
the steps to the porch he murmured : 

“I’ll do my very best for him,” while 
Captain John Atherton said, as he opened 
the door of his safe to take out the papers 
that he needed : “That boy is worth help- 
ing, and I’ll help him.” 


A WEDDING AT CLIFFMORE 129 

With the genial Captain away, the 
housekeeper felt free to enjoy a bit of gos- 
sip, and seeing the cook in the garden of 
the next house, she slipped out of the rear 
door, and across the lawn, where, that her 
coming might look like a mere happening, 
she took a bit of paper from her pocket, 
and commenced scribbling upon it. 

She wished the cook in the next garden 
to think that she was jotting down a few 
things that she wished to remember. 

Curiosity was at once aroused, and the 
cook moved toward the hedge. 

“E’hem!” she coughed softly. 

The housekeeper turned coolly. 

“Oh, good morning,” she said. “I just 
come out here for a bit of a rest, there’s so 
much going on just now, that I’m nearly 
wild with the planning.” 

“Do tell!” cried the cook. “I’ve heard 


130 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
there was to be great doings of some sort 
over at ‘The Cliffs,’ but I haven’t yet 
heard what it is. What’s it all about? 
I’m wild to know.” 

Mrs. Wilton sighed, as if she were al- 
ready very weary. 

“We’re not more than half ready for the 
great event,” she said, “but Captain Ath- 
erton does not wish me to tell anyone the 
least thing about it.” 

“Mercy sakes ! Why I came out purpose 
to hear!” said the cook, her round face 
very red, and her little eyes snapping. 

“Well, you’ll hear later,” Mrs. Wilton 
said, and turning, she walked across the 
lawn and entered the house. 

Inside the door she whispered : 

“There ! I guess that paid her for being 
so private that she wouldn’t tell me a thing 
about the company that left their house in 


A WEDDING AT CLIFF MORE 13 1 
such a hurry one day last week, and hus- 
tled off before daylight at that!” 

The cook, still standing with her fat 
arms akimbo, stared wrathfully at the 
closed door where the housekeeper had 
vanished. 

“Well, of all the mean things not even 
telling a decent woman like myself one bit 
of what’s going on there! I’ll find out, 
though, some way. To-morrow is my af- 
ternoon off, and I’ll go from one end of 
this town to the other to see what I can 
hear.” 

Even little Rose Atherton was pledged 
to keep the secret. 

“We’re to have a lovely time at our 
house,” she said to Polly and Sprite, one 
morning. “We’re to have a perfectly 
lovely time, and you’ll be there to enjoy 
it, but that is all I can tell. Uncle John 


132 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
said I could say that if I wished to but 
that I musn’t tell any more just now.” 

“Well, we won’t mind waiting to hear 
just what it is,” Polly said, “because we 
know it will be nice, whatever sort of party 
it is. We always have a nice time at your 
house.” 

“And we’ll like it all the better because 
there’s to be a surprise of some sort,” said 
Sprite. 

“We can wonder and wonder, and then 
when the day comes we’ll have the fun of 
not guessing what it is, but just knowing 
what it is and enjoying it.” 

Rose looked very wise. 

“It’s to be lovely, I told you that, and 
there’s one thing more I can tell, and that 
is that it will be different from any party 
we ever went to, or any party any of us 
ever had.” 


A WEDDING AT CLIFFMORE 133 

“Won’t we be glad when we haven’t to 
wait any longer to know just what kind of 
a party it is*?” said Sprite. 

“Oh, yes,” agreed Princess Polly, “and 
so will ever so many other people, for I’ve 
heard people talking about it, and saying 
that they were tired of guessing, and that 
they wished they knew now, instead of 
having to wait still longer to know.” 

“It won’t be very long now before they 
know,” Rose said, laughing gaily. 

The secret was out, because the invita- 
tions were out. 

Captain John Atherton, the genial mas- 
ter of the beautiful home at Cliffmore, 
known as “The Cliffs,” and of an equally 
beautiful estate at Avondale, was to marry 
the girl whom he had always faithfully 
loved. 


134 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

The misunderstanding that had parted 
them had come about because of the loss of 
a miniature of the girl, Iris Vandmere. 

Its loss had grieved John Atherton. 

He could not imagine how it could have 
so completely vanished. In truth, it had 
been stolen, but Iris thought that her lover 
must have valued it lightly, believing if 
he had properly guarded it, it could not 
have been taken from him. One word had 
led to another, and she had sent him away, 
grieving and wretched. 

Her own heart was not less sad, but she 
had endeavored to hide that. Then, on 
that lucky day of the Summer before. Prin- 
cess Polly had found the exquisite minia- 
ture lying in the middle of the sandy road. 

How it came to be there, no one could 
say. Evidently someone, perhaps, the one 
who had stolen it, had dropped it, and 


A WEDDING AT CLIFFMORE 135 
travelled on, unaware that the famous 
miniature lay waiting a claimant, on the 
main road of Cliffmore. 

The Summer colony was excited, but of 
all those who were invited to be present, 
none were more lovingly interested than 
the children. 

John Atherton loved the children, and 
they dearly loved him. 

One would have thought that the grand 
old house of the Vandmere’s would have 
been chosen for the wedding, but Iris was 
quite alone there, save for her servants. 

Both parents had but recently passed 
away, and the lonely girl felt that the 
home with its sad memories was not at all 
the place for the happy event. 

“Let it be at Cliffmore,” she had said, 
and at Cliffmore it was to be. 

“Only think of it,” Princess Polly said 


136 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
one morning, “Rose is to be maid of honor, 
and Sprite and I are to be bridesmaids. 
Rose is to wear pink, with pink roses, and 
we shall wear white with pink roses. Miss 
Iris will wear white, because brides al- 
ways wear white. Mamma, why can’t 
brides sometimes wear something else?” 

Mrs. Sherwood laughed. 

“This time the bride will wear ‘some- 
thing else.’ Miss Vandmere’s gown will 
be of the palest blue satin, and beautiful 
lace,” she said. 

“Oh, how lovely!” cried Princess Polly. 

At last the great day arrived, just as the 
children felt that they could not wait much 
longer. 

It was like a dream of Fairyland, for the 
great gardens at “The Cliffs” had never 
looked finer, the rooms were bowers of 
flowers and foliage, soft music floated 


A WEDDING AT CLIFFMORE 137 
through the halls, and then, Iris in shim- 
mering blue satin, attended by her dainty 
little maids, came forward to the floral 
arch, where handsome Captain Atherton 
stood waiting. 

After the ceremony, the guests moved 
forward to kiss the lovely bride, and Iris, 
bent to give her first kiss to her little maid 
of honor. 

“You are my little Rose, now,” she 
whispered, and Rose, happy Rose, clasped 
her arms about her soft, white neck. 

And quite as the weddings in the old 
fairy tales it was, for the banquet was like 
an old time feast, and dancing, in which 
the Captain and his bride took part, fol- 
lowed. 

When, after a gay, brilliant even- 
ing, the happy pair said “good-bye,” their 
friends gathered about them, wishing them 


138 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
a pleasant voyage on the Dolphin, a safe 
return, and all good fortune. 

Never a thought of loneliness had little 
Rose. During Uncle John’s absence, she 
was to be with her dear Princess Polly, 
and what could be better than that? 

For a few more weeks they would be at 
the shore, and Rose would be at the Sher- 
wood’s cottage, at play all day with Prin- 
cess Polly and Sprite. 

Then she would leave Cliffmore with 
the Sherwoods, and go with them to Avon- 
dale, there to remain until, upon his re- 
turn, Uncle John, and the lovely, new 
Aunt Iris, should come for her. Rose was 
delighted to stay with Princess Polly, and 
she looked forward to her home with Un- 
cle John, now to be even pleasanter than 
before, because of the sweet, new relative, 
whom she already loved. 


A WEDDING AT CLIFF MORE 139 

The day after the wedding, Gwen de- 
cided to go over to “The Cliffs” to learn if 
Rose were there, and if she were so lucky 
as to find her, to remain and play with 
her. It would be a fine way to spend the 
morning. 

She had quarreled with Max. 

She was always either vexed with him 
or just making up, and no one could ever 
guess which had happened, because Gwen 
looked quite as cheerful after a disagree- 
ment, as when the friendship had been 
renewed. 

She hurried along the beach, rushing 
past a group of small girls whom she often 
played with, because she meant surely to 
find Rose before she might leave “The 
Cliffs” to go over to Princess Polly’s house. 

She knew that the walk would be a long 
one, yet it seemed farther than she thought. 


140 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

The sun was hot, and the sand seemed 
burning under the thin soles of her dainty 
shoes. 

“How long it takes me to get there!” 
she said impatiently. “I couldn’t run all 
the way.” 

She reached the low gate a few minutes 
later, however, and opening it, swung it 
wide between the two stone posts, and ran 
up the path, laughing when the gate swung 
to with a clang of its iron latch. 

Mrs. Wilton, the housekeeper, opened 
the door, believing that some important 
person had arrived, for the bell had rung 
as if the opening of the door were im- 
perative. 

She was not pleased to see the small 
girl standing there. 

“No, Rose is not here,” she said in an- 
swer to Gwen’s question. “She is to stay 


A WEDDING AT CLIFF MORE 141 
with Polly while her Uncle John is away. 
She went over there this morning.” 

“Why this is ‘this morning’,” Gwen said, 
pertly. 

“It is ten o’clock, and Rose went over to 
the Sherwood house at eight,” the house- 
keeper said, at the same time stepping 
back, as if she intended to close the door. 

She was free to close it as soon as she 
chose, for Gwen had turned, and without 
a word or a glance, raced down the path, 
out of the gateway and up the beach to 
join Rose and Polly whom she now saw 
standing and talking. 

“Hello!” she cried, as she drew nearer. 
“I’ve been over to ‘The Cliffs’ to find you, 
Rose, and then I came here. What you 
two talking about?” 

“Trying to choose what to play,” Rose 
said. 


142 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

Both wished that Gwen had remained 
away, but they could not be rude, so she 
of course would join in the game, whatever 
it might be. It was a warm morning, and 
Princess Polly was just thinking that it 
would be fine to choose a shady spot, and 
sit there telling fairy tales, but Gwen’s 
arrival made that impossible. 

She never cared to listen while someone 
told a story. To be happy she must be the 
story teller, and as her stories were always 
wildly improbable, and always about her 
silly little self, they were never at all in- 
teresting. 

For that matter, she was never willing 
to join in any game unless it was very 
exciting. 

Several games were suggested by Rose 
and Polly, but to all Gwen shook her head, 
and refused to play either one of them. 


A WEDDING AT CLIFF MORE 143 

One she thought too stupid, another she 
declared that she had never liked, and, yet 
another was “awfully dull” she said. 

At last Rose lost patience. 

“What will you play?” she asked 
sharply, her cheeks flushing. 

“Oh, I don’t know,” Gwen replied care- 
lessly. “I guess I won’t play at all, any- 
way not with you two. I’ll run back and 
find Max Deland. He’s good fun, and 
he’ll surely be able to think of something 
I’ll like to play. He most always does, 
and I like him because he is wide awake. 
Good-bye!” and she was off like a flash 
down the beach. 


CHAPTER VIII 

AUNT ROSE CALLS 


T here had been many sunny days 
with blue skies, and never a cloud 
in sight, when one day, to the surprise of 
everyone, the sky appeared to be a solid 
mass of dark, leaden clouds, and the sea 
that for such a long time had been glisten- 
ing and sparkling, now showed only a dark 
sullen surface, with here and there a 
whitecap to break its monotony. 

Rose and Polly had decided to remain 
indoors, and all the afternoon they had 
been busy sorting the shells that they had 
been collecting. 

“I wish I had more of these,” said Polly, 
pointing to a little heap of oddly shaped 

144 


AUNT ROSE CALLS 14S 

shells, white in color, with here and there 
markings of soft brown. 

“I wish so too,” Rose said. “We’ve less 
of that kind than we have of any of the 
others. I wonder how it happened that 
we didn’t get more of those 

“I don’t know, but if it is pleasant to- 
morrow, let’s hunt for some,” said Polly. 

Mrs. Sherwood called, and Polly put- 
ting the tray full of shells upon the table, 
went out across the hall to reply. 

Rose hurried down stairs to the hall, out 
onto the piazza, along the flower bordered 
path to the gate, then out and off down 
the beach. 

Polly never liked to be out when the sky 
was cloudy and the wind raw, but Rose 
cared not a bit, and she had gone out think- 
ing to give Polly a surprise. 

She meant to find some of the coveted 


146 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
shells, and run home with them before 
Polly should have missed her. 

She looked back at the Sherwood cot- 
tage. How pretty it was, and quite like 
a country house with its well kept lawn, 
its flowers in the gardens, and even at the 
gate, a rose vine clambering over. 

Swiftly she ran along the beach to a 
spot where usually they had found the 
most shells. 

A few there were, but none like those 
that Polly wanted, and she trudged along, 
looking sharply at every shell that lay im- 
bedded in the hard, wet sand, from which 
the tide had receded. 

She had been gone nearly an hour al- 
though she did not dream that it was so 
long since she had left the house. 

She had known that Polly would not 
follow her, because of the cold wind that 


AUNT ROSE CALLS 147 

was blowing so briskly. A rift in the 
clouds had let the sunlight through, and 
when she reached the gate, the garden was 
bathed in sunlight. 

Rose paused for a moment to look at 
the flowers, now gay in the bright sun- 
shine, when the sound of voices came 
toward her, and while one was the pleasant 
voice of Mrs. Sherwood, the other was 
surely the voice of — Great Aunt Rose ! 

“Captain Atherton asked that Rose 
might remain with us while he is away,” 
Rose heard Mrs. Sherwood say to which 
the cold voice of Great Aunt Rose replied 
sternly : 

“Well, and if he did, I see no reason why 
she can not spend a part of the time with 
me at the old Atherton house which I 
have always felt was her proper home.” 

Little Rose Atherton’s heart beat faster. 


148 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
She still stood at the gate, and she won- 
dered that, for a moment, neither spoke. 

Then Great Aunt Rose broke the 
silence. 

“I was away at the time of the wedding, 
but had I been present, I should have at 
that time insisted that the Captain leave 
her with me, not only during his cruise on 
the Dolphin, but after his return. 

“The young woman whom he has mar- 
ried is a beauty, and so of course, will be 
too full of dress and society to have any 
interest in little Rose. If John has chosen 
to wed a flighty beauty, he should at least 
give Rose to me.” 

“Miss Vandmere is indeed beautiful to 
look at, but she is lovely in character as 
well, and I know that she loves Rose,” 
Mrs. Sherwood said quietly. 

She would not argue, but she felt that. 


AUNT ROSE CALLS 


149 


in justice she must give utterance to the 
fine regard in which she held Iris Vand- 
mere. 

“There are, I suppose, some beauties 
who are neither vain nor foolish, but how- 
ever that may be, I am determined to see 
Rose to-day, and to ask her if she does not 
wish to return with me,” 

At these words uttered in a shrill, angry 
voice. Rose turned and raced down the 
beach. 

She dropped the shells that she had been 
tightly holding, and without a thought of 
recovering them, she ran at top speed, as 
if, at that very moment stately Great Aunt 
Rose had been actually chasing her. 

She had no idea how far she had run, 
she had not paused for even a second, nor 
had she once looked back. Now as she 
looked up, she saw a narrow side street 



150 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
that commenced at the shore, but well up 
from the water, and ran toward the center 
of the little village. 

She was almost breathless as she turned 
into the little street, but she dared not 
stop running. 

The very thought of ever returning to 
the stately old Atherton house, with its 
great dark halls, its formal drawing-room, 
and for companion, gentle Aunt Lois, kind 
but so deaf that it was almost impossible 
to talk with her, and cold, dignified, 
haughty Great Aunt Rose, filled little 
Rose with terror. 

She was now completely tired out, and 
as she turned the corner of the next street, 
she stumbled, and would have fallen but 
for two strong arms that caught her. She 
looked up. 

“Why little Rose !” 


AUNT ROSE CALLS 151 

“Oh, Aunt Judith! Dear Aunt Judith, 
take me home with you now, right off, this 
very minute!” cried Rose. “Don’t stop 
to ask why! Just take me now! Come! 
They may be here any minute ! Come !” 

“Why, Rose! What does this mean'?” 
cried Aunt Judith. 

“I was on my way to call upon Mrs. 
Sherwood, and ask you and Polly to come 
up to my little cottage and spend to-mor- 
row with me, and here you are, looking for 
all the world as if you were running away. 
I musn’t run off with you like this.” 

“Oh, but do. Aunt Judith. Please do! 
It isn’t safe to wait a minute. I’ll tell 
you everything when we’re safe at your 
cottage. Come!” 

The fear in Rose’s brown eyes was so 
evident, that although it seemed a strange 
thing to do. Aunt Judith turned about, and 


152 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
with Rose clinging to her arm, started in 
the direction of the station. A train was 
already made up, and about to start for 
Avondale. 

They were soon seated, and Rose drew 
a sigh of relief when the train started. 

“Now, I’m safe,” she said, leaning 
against Aunt Judith. 

It was not until they were inside the 
cottage at Avondale, at twilight, the 
shades drawn and the lamps lighted that 
Rose told what had frightened her, and 
why she had run away. 

“I don’t wonder that you were fright- 
ened,” Aunt Judith said. “If John had 
been at home you would have been brave, 
but gentle Mrs. Sherwood seemed to you 
to be no match for Great Aunt Rose. I do 
not think as you do. For all her gentle- 
ness Mrs. Sherwood is a fine character, and 


AUNT ROSE CALLS 153 

I do not think she would permit anyone to 
take you from her home when you had been 
left in her care by your Uncle John. 

“There is another thing to be thought 
of. Great Aunt Rose has left the Sher- 
wood cottage long before this, and Mrs. 
Sherwood and Princess Polly I believe are 
greatly frightened by your absence. 
Don’t you know that they must have been 
searching for you now for at least two 
hours, and not finding you, they will fear 
that you have come to harm. 

“If only you had told me what it was 
that had so frightened you, I would have 
returned with you to Mrs. Sherwood, and 
have helped convince your aunt that you 
could not go home with her. 

“Great Aunt Rose would not actually 
take you by force.” 

“Oh, she would!” cried Rose, “and I’m 


154 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
glad we’re here, but we can let them know 
that I am safe, and that I am here with 
you, and why I came. I’d go back to them 
to-morrow if I knew Great Aunt Rose 
wouldn’t go there again, and try to get 
me. 

“Oh, the great old Atherton house is so 
grand, and yet so lonely, and she doesn’t 
love me. She was always telling me while 
I was there that the reason she wanted me 
to live there was because I was an Ather- 
ton, and she said the proper place for me 
to live was in the old Atherton house. 

“She said there had always been a ‘Rose 
Atherton’ in the family even ’way, ’way 
back, and that every ‘Rose Atherton’ had 
lived in that house, and when I said I pit- 
ied them, she was angry, and she said I’d 
no reason to. She said the others were 
proud of this family, and glad to live there. 


AUNT ROSE CALLS 155 

and that I was the odd one. She said it 
was strange I’d rather live with Uncle 
John, and I said it wasn't strange because 
he was so loving. 

“Oh, I can’t bear to think of the time 
that I lived there, and I’m glad I ran away 
from Polly’s house before Great Aunt Rose 
saw me. I know she would have snatched 
me away from the Sherwood’s. 

“I was peeping in at the gate when I 
heard her voice. 

“She was telling Mrs. Sherwood that I 
ought to go home and stay with her while 
Uncle John is away. 

“I didn’t wait a minute, but raced down 
the beach just as fast as I could. Then I 
thought if she came out, she might see me 
on the beach even at a distance, so I turned 
into a side street, and the next corner I 
turned brought me straight to you.” 


156 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

There was indeed consternation in the 
Sherwood cottage when, after the un- 
pleasant caller had left he house, Polly 
commenced to look for Rose, and no Rose 
could be found, though thorough search 
was made, the servants gladly assisting, 
and just as Polly was crying, and declar- 
ing that she could not taste the least bit of 
food until Rose was found, the telephone 
rang. 

Glad news it was that Rose was safe 
with Aunt Judith, and Mrs. Sherwood and 
Polly accepted Aunt Judith’s invitation to 
come and spend the next day at her cot- 
tage. 

Aunt Judith had gone a short distance 
to. Mrs. Grafton’s house, and she had sent 
her message from there. 

“Hurrah!” cried Harry, as Aunt Judith 
turned from the telephone. “I’m glad it 


AUNT ROSE CALLS 157 

happened that Rose had to run away, for 
we’ve missed her all these weeks that she’s 
been spending at the shore. We’ll be over 
to-morrow to see her, won’t we, Leslie?” 
and he gave one of Leslie’s long curls a 
sly twitch. 

“We surely will, unless you pull all my 
hair out when I’d want to hide my head,” 
Leslie said, laughing. 

“Oh, pshaw ! The way I pull your curls 
amounts to just love pats,” Harry cried. 

“You wouldn’t say so if I twitched your 
hair like that,” Leslie responded. 

“I guess I’ll go down and get my hair 
shingled so you won’t be able to get hold 
of it,” he said. “Lend me a quarter, 
Leslie? I spent all I had to-day on candy 
and a new bat.” 

Leslie refused and Harry chased her, 
the two laughing as they ran. 


158 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

“I never saw a brother and sister who 
played together so prettily,” Aunt Judith 
said. 

“They are great chums,” Mrs. Grafton 
said. “Of course Harry has his boy 
friends, and Leslie is very fond of Lena 
Lindsey, but for all that my boy and girl 
are fast friends, and they love each other 
dearly.” 

“I like to see it,” Aunt Judith said. 

She hurried back to the cottage where 
Rose at the window was eagerly watching 
for her. 

“Mrs. Sherwood’s voice sounded very 
anxious when she replied to my call at the 
telephone, and the tone of quick relief 
when I told her that you were safe here at 
the cottage with me was very evident. 

“Polly had cried until she was about 
sick, but of course, she will be all right 


AUNT ROSE CALLS 159 

now, and they will both be with us here 
to-morrow, for the day.” 

“That will be fine,” cried Rose, “and 
you’ll set the larger table to-morrow, and 
make it look fine, but to-night. Aunt Ju- 
dith, just to-night let’s have the little tea 
table, just as we used to when I lived here 
with you, with the pretty pale green 
dishes, and the dear little sugar and cream 
set with the pink moss-rose buds on it. 
May we. Aunt Judith?” 

Aunt Judith came and took the pretty 
face between her two hands, and looked 
into the eager brown eyes for a moment. 

“We’ll have our little tea just as we 
used to, because it will please you, and be- 
cause I’d like nothing better,” she said. 

“And let me help at the table, just as I 
used to,” Rose said, and together they 
worked. Rose bringing the rosebud china. 


i6o PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
while Aunt Judith brought the pale green 
plates, and cups and saucers from the little 
china closet, and placed them upon the 
dainty, spindle-legged table. There were 
tiny, fresh rolls, chocolate with cream, a 
dish of raspberry jam of which Rose was 
very fond, and even the little round pound 
cakes that Rose so well remembered. 
Aunt Judith had sent a small boy to pur- 
chase them for her while she was telephon- 
ing at Mrs. Grafton’s. 

When all was ready, they took their 
places. Aunt Judith pouring the chocolate, 
while Rose served the cream from the 
dainty jug, and dropped the cubes of sugar 
from the quaint little silver tongs. 

“Aunt Judith, I’m so happy with Uncle 
John, that everything I have at his home 
seems perfect, but there’s one queer thing 
that I don’t understand. No raspberry 


AUNT ROSE CALLS i6i 

jam ever seems just like the jam I always 
had at this cottage.” 

Aunt Judith was delighted. 

“To think that you would always re- 
member the jam, and think it a bit nicer 
than any other!” she said. 

“Perhaps it was because we were choice 
of it, and served it on Sundays and holi- 
days that made you think it extra nice.” 

Rose leaned toward her and laid her 
hand upon her arm. “And perhaps it was 
because you always kept the jam in that 
lovely cream colored crock that has the 
butterflies upon it. I do believe things 
taste nicer for being kept in pretty jars like 
that.” 

“I think so, too,” Aunt Judith said, “but 
your Uncle John has beautiful china, so 
doubtless his housekeeper could find 
plenty of pretty dishes for serving.” 


1 62 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

“Oh, she does,” Rose replied, “but in 
the closet, the jam is kept in a stone crock, 
while yours was always in the butterfly jar 
that I always thought so lovely.” 

“The dearest thing about this cosy little 

tea is the fact ” Aunt Judith bent to 

kiss her cheek, “that I have you for my 
guest, little Rose.” 


CHAPTER IX 

AT AVONDALE 

H arry was ready to go over to the 
cottage at eight the next morning, 
but Leslie declared it a ridiculous hour to 
call. 

“Call !” cried Harry. “Who’s going to 
make a prim old call, I’d like to know? 
S’pose a fellow is going to lug a card case 
just to go and play with Rose?” 

“Of course not,” said Leslie, “but even 
if we are just going over to the cottage to 
play, we’d not care to get there when she’s 
eating breakfast.” 

“Well, I guess there’s no chance of do- 
ing that, Leslie. Look at the clock. It is 
after eight now, and we’re still at table.” 

163 


i 64 princess Polly at play 

‘Til go over with you at nine,” Leslie 
said, and when the clock struck nine, she 
found him just outside the door, his shrill 
whistle having told her where to find him. 

“Come on !” he cried. “It’s nine, and if 
you won’t come with me now I’ll go over 
to see Rose without you.” 

“Well, I’ll have to go back now,” Leslie 
said, and turning, she ran across the hall, 
and up the stairway, laughing as she went. 

“Good-bye !” shouted Harry, and off he 
sped, thinking it a great joke on Leslie 
that he should keep his word, and because 
she was causing the delay, run off to the 
cottage instead of waiting for her. 

Leslie, never dreaming but that he was 
waiting on the walk just outside the door, 
wondered that he did not whistle or call 
to her to hurry. 

She had gone back for a book that she 


AT AVONDALE 165 

intended to give Rose, and in her haste 
she could not at once find it. 

At last she saw a bit of its cover be- 
neath a mass of lace and ribbon, in the cor- 
ner of the drawer where she had placed it 
for safe keeping, and catching it up, flew 
down the stairway and out upon the 
porch. 

For a moment she paused, wondering 
where Harry might be, when a merry shout 
made her look up. 

Away up the avenue, just opening the 
cottage gate, was Harry, and even as she 
looked, he disappeared behind the tall 
shrubbery in the garden. 

“Well, isn’t he great?” Leslie said, as 
she started to run. 

Rose and Harry were just behind a tall 
shrub that overhung the gateway, and as 
Leslie pushed the gate open they sprang 


1 66 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
forward in a fine attempt to startle her, 
but she only laughed. 

“You couldn’t make me jump,” she said, 
because I saw a bit of Rose’s pink dress be- 
tween the branches, and Harry moved his 
head so that I saw his yellow hair.” 

“Why didn’t you speak, and tell us you 
knew where we were hiding?” Harry 
asked, a nice bit vexed that Leslie had not 
“jumped.” 

“I thought you ought to have the fun of 
springing out at me, after you’d hidden so 
nicely,” Leslie said. 

“Better luck next time,” said Rose, and 
together they ran around behind the cot- 
tage to learn if the little brook was as clear, 
and as rippling as when Rose, in the early 
Summer, had sailed her little boat upon it. 

“The brook is here !” cried Harry. “It 
hasn’t run away yet.” 


AT AVONDALE 167 

A ragged little chap now approached 
them, but they did not see him. They were 
kneeling on the bank and looking at the 
reflections in a little pool where no ripple 
stirred the surface. 

The comical little fellow might have 
kept away from them had they been facing 
him, but as their backs were toward him, 
he felt quite brave. 

He was a droll looking urchin. His 
trousers evidently belonged to an older 
brother, as the legs had been rolled over 
and over in an effort to make them short 
enough so that he might walk without 
treading upon them. His blouse must 
have been the property of the same person, 
for the sleeves had received the same treat- 
ment as the trouser legs, that he might be 
able to use his hands. Upon his head rested 
an old straw hat. A big hole in the crown 


i68 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 


permitted a sprout of red hair to pop out, 
and a pair of shoes, not mates, completed 
his odd costume. He continued to ap- 
proach until he stood within a few feet of 
Harry Grafton, and then he paused, as if 
wishing that one of the group might turn, 
and greet him. 

With chubby hands clasped behind his 
back he waited. He was evidently in no 
hurry, but after a time he became impa- 
tient. 

“Hello!” he said, and Harry turned. 

“Hello, little chap! Who are you*?” 
Harry asked. 

Ignoring the question, the small boy 
eyed Harry for a second, then he lisped: 

“Where’th Gyp? Ma thaid: ‘Find 
Gyp.’ ” 

“Are you Gyp’s little brother?” Harry 
asked. 


AT AVONDALE 169 

The small head in the big hat nodded. 

“What’s your name ?” inquired Harry. 

“Motheth,” said the child. 

“Moses!” cried Harry. “You must be 
wise. Are you?” 

"I do’ no’, but I got to find Gyp, for Ma 
thaid I wouldn’t have no dinner unleth I 
found him, an’ I want my dinner now.” 

“And yet you haven’t found Gyp,” 
Harry said. “Well, I saw him a little 
while ago at work on the lawn over at Cap- 
tain Atherton’s house. Run over there and 
look for him. Scoot ! He may go off while 
you’re waiting to think about it.” 

Wee Moses waited for no urging, but 
raced across Aunt Judith’s lawn, out of the 
gate, and down the avenue, the tuft of 
red hair waving like a flaming feather on 
the crown of his hat. 

“Just notice his speed,” cried Harry, 


170 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
and Rose and Leslie laughed as the comi- 
cal figure turned, and bolted up the drive- 
way of the Atherton place. 

“That is only one of Gyp’s small broth- 
ers,” Leslie said. 

“I never knew that he had one named 
Moses,” said Rose. 

“I’ve heard you tell their names, Har- 
ry,” Leslie said, “but I never remember 
them all. I know there is a Mike, and a 
Pete, and isn’t one named Hank?” 

“Yes, and there’s Luke and a little fel- 
low that they call Sonny while they’re try- 
ing to decide what to name him,” said 
Harry, “and really he’s such a funny look- 
ing little fellow that it would be . hard 
work to think of a name that would fit 
him.” 

“There is a girl over on the other part 
of the town whose name is Tulip Rose 


AT AVONDALE 


171 

Lillian Buttrick, and she told the girls 
that her parents gave her all those names 
because they couldn’t decide which they 
liked best.” 

“What an idea!” cried Rose. “Well, 
I’m glad I haven’t Tulip and Lillian ad- 
ded to my name.” 

“I don’t see why those people stopped 
at all,” Harry said, “for there’s dandelion, 
and phlox and marigold, and a whole lot 

■|L. 

of other flower names. Seems sort of 
stingy to give her only three.” 

“Oh, Harry! Nobody would name a 
girl ‘Phlox,’ think how it would look writ- 
ten,” Leslie said. 

“I guess they don’t worry about how it 
would look written,” Harry said. 

It was when Rose and Leslie and Harry 
were resting after an exciting game, that 


172 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
Mrs. Sherwood and Princess Polly arrived. 

Then the fun began. 

Mrs. Sherwood went in to talk with 
Aunt Judith, and the four playmates ran 
over to the Grafton’s for a game of tennis. 
And while they were playing, eagerly hop- 
ing to win, each trying to outdo the other, 
little Sprite Seaford sat in the odd little 
living room of her home, sorting her treas- 
ures, and at the same time thinking what 
a fine time Princess Polly must be having 
at Aunt Judith’s cottage with Rose and 
her other playmates. 

The pretty shells, the coral, and the star 
fish, each had places of their own, but they 
had been taken out to show to some call- 
ers the afternoon before, and Sprite was 
now engaged in replacing them, each in its 
own especial place. 

Captain Seaford was out fishing and 


AT AVONDALE 


m 

Mrs. Seaford had gone to the village to do 
a few errands so Sprite was free to take 
her time about the task. 

Softly she sang as she placed the white 
shells in one row, and the pink shells in 
another. 

A smart tap at the door made her start, 
then she called: 

“Come in,” and Gwen entered. 

Sprite wished that she had not answered 
the rap. 

“Goodness! What a heap of shells. 
What are you going to do with them? 
Going to keep them?” Gwen asked, in a 
manner that implied that she thought he 
lovely sea treasures simply rubbish. 

“Keep them!” echoed Sprite. “Why of 
course I’m going to keep them.” 

“They’re pretty of course,” Gwen ad- 
mitted, “but it must be a horrid job to 


174 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
keep them in order. Leave them where 
they are and come out on the beach.” 

“Oh, I can’t,” said Sprite, and she was 
about to say that she must place her shells 
and coral in safe positions before going 
out, but Gwen did not wait to hear what 
she had intended to say. 

Instead, she hurried out, banging the 
door behind her. 

“I’ll find someone who’ll do as I want 
to,” she declared, and she ran up the beach 
to find Princess Polly, but Princess Polly 
and Rose were both at Avondale, and 
Gwen ran on to the center of the little 
coast village. 

“I’ll find someone to play with, I don’t 
care who it is,” she said, as she raced along. 

When the sea trophies were all in their 
places. Sprite stepped back to view her 
work. 


AT AVONDALE 


175 


A smile curved her lips, and her eyes 
grew brighter. 

“They look finer than they ever did be- 
fore,” she said softly, “and now I’ll try to 
keep them just as they are arranged.” 

Sprite Seaford was often called a little 
“Water Witch,” from the fact that she 
was so much at home on the water. 

She could swim wonderfully well for so 
small a girl, and she managed her boat with 
skill. 

After another approving glance at the 
rows of softly tinted shells, she ran out 
onto the beach, and soon in her boat she 
was gliding along on the shallow water 
near the shore, her oars moving with slow 
precision, keeping time to the song that 
she was singing, or.rather to the songs that 
she was singing, for she was making a gay 
little medley of many familiar tunes. 


176 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

The light breeze lifted her long, waving 
hair, and let it flutter back from her face, 
it kissed her cheeks, and made them pink 
like the shells that she valued most. 

The great gulls hovered overhead, flap- 
ping their wings, and circling about as if 
trying to determine what sort of little be- 
ing it was that boasted such long tresses. 

Skimming over a bit of shallow water, 
she chanced to look down and there, on the 
sandy bottom, was a shell, different in 
shape from any in her collection. 

“I must have it,” she cried, and in a sec- 
ond she had drawn the oars into the boat, 
had slipped into the shallow water, and 
having pushed the light boat toward the 
shore, swam along under water until she 
came to the spot where the shell lay. 

She came up to the surface to get the 
air, laughed, and swam downward again, 


AT AVONDALE 177 

snatched the coveted shell, and then made 
her way to where the little boat rocked on 
the waves. 

She was in it in a moment, and again 
plying the oars, her shell on the seat oppo- 
site that on which she was sitting. 

She had dressed herself in her little bath- 
ing suit, and she laughed as she saw that 
the warm breeze playing with her hair, was 
drying it, while her blouse and skirt were 
dripping and would continue to drip until 
hung up where the wind could blow 
through them. 

Rarely a day passed that Sprite did not 
spend with Polly and Rose, but to-day they 
were away, and she must amuse herself. 
They were her two dearest playmates, but 
the dancing waves were the next best. 

“I love to play with Princess Polly, and 
with Rose Atherton, and when Pm not 


178 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
playing with them, I like my boat,” she 
said softly. “I would have asked Gwen to 
stay but I didn’t want to her to. 

“Gwen so often says unpleasant things. 
Polly and Rose never do, and surely the 
boat doesn’t. It never even answers 
back,” she added with a laugh. Then for 
a time she plied the oars in silence, rowing 
always close along the shore, out from one 
little bay, and into another. 

Then someone hailed her. 

“Hi! Sprite! Sprite Seaford!” 

She turned on her seat, and there, on the 
beach, close to the water, was Max Deland. 

“Say! Have you seen Gwen Har- 
court?” he asked, his hands held trumpet- 
wise, to carry his voice to her. 

“I saw her, oh, much as an hour ago, it 
may be longer,” Sprite answered. 

“Oh, pshaw ! I mean have you seen her 


AT AVONDALE 179 

within a short time?” cried Max, impa- 
tiently. 

“I said I saw her an hour ago, and maybe 
longer,” Sprite said. 

“I wonder it wasn’t a week!” cried Max. 
“I want her now.” 

With that he ran off down the beach, 
and Sprite wondered why he was in such 
evident haste. 

She turned the boat about, and rowed 
along in the direction that Max was going. 

She saw him run along the beach, then 
stop and take something, a small book she 
thought, from his pocket, look steadfastly 
at it for a few moments, and then, after 
thrusting it back into his pocket, run on 
again. 

She wondered what sort of book it was, 
and why Max seemed so very impatient in 
regard to seeing Gwen. He seemed bent 


i8o PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
upon running the entire length of the 
beach, and she watched him until he either 
entered, or ran behind the little shanty 
that some workmen were using as a tool 
house. 

“I believe Max is as queer in some ways 
as Gwen is,” mused Sprite. 

“I wonder what that little book was. and 
why he had to stop to read it?” 

A moment later she laughed, as she said : 
“There’s one thing everyone knows, and 
that is that when Max and Gwen are to- 
gether, they’re sure to get into mischief. 
No one ever spends a minute wondering 
about that, because they know” 

She ran the boat into shallow water, 
made it fast to a pile that had been placed 
there for the purpose, tying the rope 
through the iron ring on the post. Then 
she stepped over the side of the boat into 


AT AVONDALE i8i 

the water, and waded ashore. She wrung 
the water from her skirt, took off her shoes 
and emptied the water from them, and 
then ran up the beach toward home. 

She opened the door and ran in. 

The Captain would be out on the fish- 
ing trip all day, and it was evident that 
Mrs. Seaford had not yet returned from 
her trip to the store. 

Sprite changed her drenched bathing 
suit for dry clothing, and hung the skirt 
and blouse up to dry. 

She wondered why it was that she kept 
thinking of Max and his little book. 


CHAPTER X 

THE SHIP COMES IN 


I T had been a warm, sunny day, the 
little waves had danced gaily, and the 
beach had been dazzling in the full glare 
of noonday, but the afternoon had been 
cooler, and at twilight the wind had 
changed from its warm quarter, to North- 
east. 

Snug and warm in the “Syren’s Cave,” 
they heard the wind rising until it became 
an actual gale. 

The Captain had built a fire of drift 
wood, the squatty lamp on the table gave 
out a yellow glare, and around the table 
sat the three members of the family, the 
cat occupying the tiny rug in front of the 

182 


THE SHIP COMES IN 183 

fire. Puss purred contentedly, blinking 
when the sparks snapped and twinkled. 

Sprite bent over a fascinating book of 
fairy tales. The pictures were charming, 
the stories held her captive. 

Usually she enjoyed playing with puss 
in front of the fire, saving her book for 
stormy days, but she had opened the book 
to look at the softly tinted pictures, and 
the first story that held her attention was 
the “Tale of the Gold Children,” and she 
became so interested in their travels in 
search of their fortunes and of each other, 
that she could not put the book aside. 

Her waving hair fell about her should- 
ers as she read, and the light from the big 
lamp shimmered upon it. 

Mrs. Seaford, busy with her sewing, 
paused at times to look at the child ab- 
sorbed in her book. 


i 84 princess POLLY AT PLAY 
Captain Seaford, in a big arm chair, 
reading the “ClifFmore News,” looked ex- 
ceedingly comfortable, but his wife knew 
that while he held the paper before him, he 
was merely glancing at the reading mat- 
ter, while his mind was elsewhere. 

Often he put the paper down, laying it 
across his knees as if he were done reading. 
For a few moments he would sit thus, then 
again he would lift the paper as if he were 
endeavoring to keep his mind upon it, but 
finding it a difficult task. 

A heavy gust of wind made the win- 
dows rattle, and shook the door as if clam- 
oring for admittance. A second later, 
something was hurled against the side of 
the house, as if the gale were using small 
pieces of driftwood for missiles. 

The Captain arose, dropped his paper 
in his chair, and strode to the door. 


THE SHIP COMES IN 185 

He seemed to be trying to scan the hori- 
zon, as if looking for a sail, but no object, 
far or near could possibly be distinguished 
in the utter darkness that hung over land 
and sea. 

He turned about, closed the door, and 
picking up the paper, seated himself once 
more before the fire, but he did not read, 
allowing the paper to lie idly on his knees. 

“What is worrying you?” his wife asked 
gently, laying her hand upon his arm, and 
looking intently at him. “Is it anything 
new?” 

“It’s the same thing, dear, that has kept 
me fretting for the last three weeks,” he 
said slowly. 

“When the vessel was two weeks over- 
due I was more anxious than I cared to ad- 
mit, but now that the third week is nearly 
gone, I find myself unable to keep my mind 


i86 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
upon the paper that I try to read, or for 
that matter upon anything else.” 

“If any vessels intended coming in to- 
night, they would be obliged to get into 
some harbor where they would be safe un- 
til the sea is calm,” said Mrs. Seaford, 
“and that would make them a few days 
later, so we’ll still hope to see the one 
we’re looking for come sailing in with fly- 
ing colors.” 

Sprite, listening, while they thought 
that she was reading, now came around the 
table, and leaned against the Captain’s 
sturdy shoulder. 

“Pa, I wish you wouldn’t worry, for 
some way I’m sure she’s coming in all safe, 
I’ll tell you why. Now don’t you laugh. 
I dreamed last night that she came sailing 
in with flags flying, and oh, her hull and 
her masts were of shining gold, so let’s 


THE SHIP COMES IN 187 

think that means good luck. Will you, 
Pa*?” she coaxed, winding her little arms 
around his neck. 

She could not bear to see him so worried. 

“You’re a comfort, little Sprite, and 
your Ma is another. Don’t seem reason- 
able for a man to fret with two such bless- 
ings in his possession, but the truth is I 
wanted the luck that I believed the vessel 
would bring, for you two dear ones, far 
more than I wanted it for myself.” 

“Then don’t say you wanted it, for that 
does not sound hopeful,” Mrs. Seaford 
said. 

“No, say you want it for us, for that 
sounds as if it were coming,” Sprite said, 
“and I’m sure it will come, only it’s de- 
layed.” 

He summoned up a smile for the child 
who was endeavoring to cheer him. 


1 88 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

“I surely can truthfully say, ‘I want it 
for you’,” he said. 

“I have ventured all that I had on that 
ship’s cargo, because I believed it was sure 
to bring back a little fortune that would 
enable me to give greater comfort to your 
mother, Sprite, and you.” 

“Well, it’s coming! It’s coming! I 
know it is. I saw the golden ship last night 
in my dreams, and I sprang up and looked 
from the window, and the moonlight was 
making a bright, glittering path on the 
waves, just where, in my dream, the ship 
had been.” 

She had left the Captain’s side to skip 
and dance about in her excitement, but 
now she came softly back to lean against 
him, as he sat in his big chair. 

She laid her cheek against his a second, 
then looking into his kindly eyes, she said : 



“She looked far out across the dancing waves.” 





V 


• 



THE SHIP COMES IN 189 

“It is stormy to-night, and it may storm 
to-morrow, but when it clears, I know, oh, 
I just know the ship will come in,” 

It was later than Sprite usually sat up, 
and the Captain pointed to the clock. 

“It’s late even for a cheerful little 
prophet to be up,” he said, and Sprite 
danced away to her tiny chamber, happy 
in the thought that she had really cheered 
them. The next day the storm continued, 
but at night the gale diminished, and on 
the following day the sun rose bright, and 
golden, giving promise of a fine day. 
Sprite ran out onto the beach. 

She looked far out across the dancing 
waves, to the horizon, where plainly she 
could see the sails of incoming vessels. 
Was either one of these distant vessels 
the one for which the Captain was so 
eagerly looking? 


190 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

“They all look alike ’way off there!” 
she murmured, but a moment later she 
whispered in disgust : 

“What a goosie I am! Those vessels 
have only one sail! They’re neither of 
them ships, Who’d think I was a Cap- 
tain’s daughter?” 

Still she stood scanning the line where 
the sky and ocean met. At any moment a 
big ship might come in sight, and she 
thought how quickly she would run to tell 
the news. Then she hesitated. 

No, she would not hasten to tell it, for 
it might indeed be a ship, and yet not the 
one for which the Captain had long been 
looking, or it might be one that was not 
bound for Cliffmore, but instead would go 
farther out to sea. 

There was one sail on which the bright 
sunlight lingered, making it whiter than 


THE SHIP COMES IN 191 

those of the other vessels, so that it was 
easier for her to watch that one than either 
of the others. 

“Why ! It has turned about !” she cried, 
“and now, oh now, I see other masts and 
other sails ! It’s a ship ! It’s a ship ! Oh, 
is it the one that Pa longs to see^” 

She would gladly have stood watching 
until that vessel sailed into Cliffmore, but 
a long, silvery note from the horn called 
her in to breakfast. 

Her eyes were bright, and her cheeks 
pink with excitement, and the Captain 
looking across the table, sighed as he 
thought of all that he had planned to do 
with the money that he had so confidently 
expected. He had built rosy air castles, 
had dreamed of comforts, and pleasures 
for the two dear ones who now sat oppo- 
site him at the table, the one full of hope. 


192 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
and cheer, the other trying to summon 
cheer that she did not feel, in order to com- 
fort him. The forenoon passed swiftly, 
because the three were busy. 

Captain Seaford was making some re- 
pairs that the gale had made necessary. 
Indoors Mrs. Seaford had needed the help 
of little Sprite in some work that she was 
doing, and when the noon hour came they 
could hardly believe the clock. 

Sprite, usually eager to be out of doors, 
kept close at her mother’s side, pulling 
bastings from the garments that she was 
making. 

Sometimes she paused to look from the 
window, then again she would busy her- 
self with the bastings, and after a time, 
Mrs. Seaford, looking up, noticed with 
what rapt attention Sprite was gazing out 
at the ocean. 


THE SHIP COMES IN 


m 

“What is it, Sprite?” she asked. “Are 
you thinking of the dream vessel that you 
told us about last evening?” 

“I can’t help thinking of it,” Sprite an- 
swered, “and truly I do believe the dream 
meant good luck.” “I’d not wish you to 
believe very strongly in dreams,” Mrs. 
Seaford said, “but I’ll confess that ever 
since you told us that dream. I’ve been 
thinking of it, and, in some way, it has 
given me hope.” 

The afternoon was spent much as the 
forenoon had been, save that the bastings 
were all out of the new garments, and 
while Mrs. Seaford still plied her needle. 
Sprite picked up the book of fairy tales, 
and tried to read. 

There was one story that attracted her 
attention because its illustration showed a 
great ship, of ancient design. The name 


194 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
of the story was “The Gift Ship,” and 
Sprite began to read. Riches formed its 
cargo, jewels studded its masts, and its 
figure head, representing a mermaid, was 
of solid gold. 

“Oh, that is grander than our ship was 
to be,” thought Sprite, and she allowed the 
book to lie idly in her lap, while she looked 
out at the floating clouds, and wondered 
where the white-sailed ship had gone that, 
at early morning, had floated along that 
distant point where sky and water met. 

The captain looked in at the open door, 
and for a moment seemed to be studying 
the two who sat near the window. Then 
he spoke. 

“I’m going down to the wharf to see 
Jack Windom. He wants my opinion of 
a fishing smack he’s thinking of buying. 
I’ll not be gone long.” 


THE SHIP COMES IN 


195 


He started off at a quick pace, but a few 
minutes later, Sprite saw, from her win- 
dow, that the captain had met his friend 
when but halfway to the wharf. 

“Oh, Ma, Jack has come up halfway to 
meet Pa. I guess he was coming up to 
see if Pa had forgotten about going down 
to look at the new fishing smack. 

“Why, Ma, they’re shaking hands. 
They never do that. Why, they are both 
coming back!” 

Mrs. Seaford knew that something 
more than usual had happened. She hur- 
ried to the door, just as the two men 
reached it, and then, the captain grasped 
both her hands, crying out in his excite- 
ment: 

“It has come in, dear ! It has come in ! 
The vessel that I’ve been looking for, 
longing for, worrying for is in safe and 


196 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

sound, and the cargo, if my friend Jack 
isn’t wild, is even more valuable than I 
had dreamed ! 

“Sprite ! Sprite ! Little girl, your dream 
has come true !” 

What a day of rejoicing it was! 

“The dream came true! The dream 
came true ! The golden ship has come in !”. 
cried Sprite, dancing about like a little 
wild thing, while Mrs. Seaford laid her 
slender hands on the captain’s shoulders, 
her eyes filled with happy tears as she 
quietly said : ^ 

“For your sake, dear, I am so glad.” 

Jack Windom, hardy sailor, and bluff, 
kindly friend, was more moved than he 
cared to admit. He drew the back of his 
hand across his eyes, remarking that the 
sun was “tur’ble glarin’,” but his friends 
knew that he was fully in sympathy with 


THE SHIP COMES IN 


197 


them, and that his honest eyes had filled 
with tears, as happy as their own, because 
of the good luck that had come to them. 

“I’m glad for ye, all three of ye, and I 
wish I could hev lent a hand ter hurried 
her in, but she’s here now, and I’m as glad 
as you be that she’s in safe an’ sound. It’s 
a great day fer ye, Cap’n, an’ I’m glad, I 
declare I am.” 

Captain Seaford again started for the 
wharf, this time to see not only the new 
fishing smack, but the vessel that had 
brought such great cheer to the little home, 
and with his arm locked in Jack Windom’s 
he hurried down the beach. 

Mrs. Seaford and Sprite sat down to 
talk of their good fortune, and after a time 
little Sprite said; 

“I know I’m not to believe in signs or 
dreams, but truly I did see the new moon 


198 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
over my right shoulder, and I did dream 
of a golden ship.” 

“So you did, dear,” Mrs. Seaford said, 
“and you cheered me wonderfully last 
evening just by your telling of your lovely 
dream.” 

“That’s why I told it,” Sprite said. 

“I thought while I was telling that, 
you’d not hear the gale, and by to-day the 
storm would have cleared away, and 
maybe the ship would come in, and it did.” 

For a few moments the two sat thinking, 
then Sprite spoke again of the thoughts 
that filled her mind. 

“Yesterday I tried to read a story in my 
fairy book, called ‘The Gift Ship,’ but the 
ship’s masts were studded with jewels, and 
its figurehead was of pure gold, and some 
way it seemed too grand, too fine, while 
Pa was longing for just a plain ship like 


THE SHIP COMES IN 199 

the other ships that we see every day, I 
knew it was its cargo that he was anxious 
about, but the story seemed too good to be 
true, and I didn’t care to read it. 

“Now, oh, now I can read it, and enjoy 
it, too, for no matter how grand the story 
ship is. Pa has seen the one that he has 
been looking for, and now we are happy.” 

“Indeed we are,” Mrs. Seaford said; 
“we are thankful, too. Sprite. Think 
how different would be our thoughts to- 
night if Jack Windom’s news had been 
that the vessel that your father had been 
looking for had foundered ! 

“We are thankful indeed, we are grate- 
ful, Sprite. Oh, we are blessed with the 
best news that could have been brought to 
us,” said Mrs. Seaford. 

“I wish we could celebrate in some way 
when Pa comes back,” Sprite said. 


200 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

“We shall have to be thinking of sup- 
per now. Suppose we go out together to 
set the table, and you shall help me to 
make it attractive. 

“Come ! We’ll use our prettiest dishes, 
and we’ll set the rose-pink geranium in 
the center, and then we’ll see what we can 
do toward providing a treat.” 


CHAPTER XI 


LITTLE PITCHERS 

T he day spent at Aunt Judith’s cot- 
tage had been delightful, and 
Harry and Leslie had been such fine play- 
mates that Rose and Polly wished that 
they, too, were staying at Cliffmore. 

A few days had passed since the visit, 
and Princess Polly, still thinking of the 
day at Avondale, sat stringing shells on a 
long rose-colored cord. 

She was sitting on a low seat in the gar- 
den, her box of shells beside her. The 
shells were for Leslie, and Polly was se- 
lecting them with much care, that they 
might be of nearly the same size. 

The garden was charming with its fine 


201 


202 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
wall, and the lovely flowers that blos- 
somed within its enclosure. 

The house set well up on the beach, 
and its broad lawn and flower beds were 
surely safe from any encroachment by the 
sea, yet as a precaution, the massive wall 
had been built, and if by any chance a 
storm should drive the waves a bit too 
far, they would break against the wall, 
and then recede, leaving the garden un- 
harmed. 

The string of shells was now nearly a 
half yard in length, and Polly held it up 
for the admiration of Rose and Sprite, 
who had just arrived, and were running 
along the path. 

“Oh, isn’t it lovely?” said Rose, “and 
the colors, how nice they look, first bluish 
white and then cream white.” 

“Leslie will like that,” said Sprite. 


LITTLE PITCHERS 


203 

“Anyone would, they’re strung so pret- 
tily.” 

“I’ve ten more shells to add to the string 
and then it will be all ready for Leslie. 
Everybody keep still until I have the ten 
shells in place,” said Princess Polly, “and 
then I’ll talk with you.” 

Rose and Sprite pretended to be making 
a great effort to keep still, but the task was 
evidently too much for them, and after a 
few seconds of silence. Rose laughed, 
Sprite echoed, and then Polly laughed be- 
cause they did. 

“Oh, you two can’t keep from talking,” 
she said, “and neither can I, that is, not 
for very long, but I did keep still until I 
put the tenth shell on the string, and I’ll 
put it in this little box. There, now I’ll 
listen, for I know you’ve something to 
tell.” 


204 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

The three little friends were now sit- 
ting on the long garden seat, the tall 
shrubs behind them making a cool shade. 

Mr. Sherwood had had the space inside 
the fine wall filled with rich loam, so that 
inside the garden gate was a genuine coun- 
try garden, while outside the wall lay the 
sandy beach, and the surf, and spray. 

The flowers in the garden seemed to 
like the breezes from the sea, for their col- 
ors were glowing, and their perfume sweet. 

“There’s such queer news this morning,” 
Sprite said. “First, a sailor that Pa knows 
came up from the wharf, and he said a ves- 
sel got ’way out to sea, when they found a 
boy had hidden himself on board, a regu- 
lar stowaway, and the first fishing smack 
they met, that was heading for Cliffmore, 
took him aboard and brought him back, 
and who do you think that was?” 


LITTLE PITCHERS 205 

“Why, how could we ever guess'?” Polly 
asked in surprise. 

“Well, that was John Selby, the grocer’s 
boy. You know the store over at the Cen- 
ter,” said Sprite, “and I guess you’ve seen 
the boy. He’s ’bout fourteen, and has red 
hair, and he’s the one that helps deliver 
goods from his father’s store.” 

Yes, they remembered him. 

Good-tempered, happy-go-lucky John 
Selby. What could have tempted him to 
leave home, and become a stowaway? 
Sprite knew why he had done it. 

“He said he didn’t want to be a grocer 
when he grew up,” she said. “He said he 
loved the sea, and would rather be a sailor, 
so now his father says if he’ll stay at home 
and help in the store until he’s a bit older, 
he’ll consent to his becoming a sailor, if he 
still thinks he’d like a sailor’s life.” 


2o6 princess POLLY AT PLAY 

The pronouns were a bit confused, but 
Rose and Polly understood. 

They hardly knew whether to be sorry 
for John or his father, 

“It seems hard for John to want to go 
and leave his father,” Polly said, “and it’s 
hard that John can’t be a sailor boy if he 
wants to.” 

“And you can’t know which is the hard- 
er,” said Sprite. 

“Well, I wouldn’t think any boy would 
run away from home when he knew that 
his father and mother would grieve for 
him,” Rose said. 

“I’d think any boy would if he wanted 
to!” said a sharp voice. 

It was Max Deland who had entered 
the garden, and now, with a defiant air, 
stood staring at the group of playmates, 
as if daring them to disagree with him. 


LITTLE PITCHERS 207 

His cap was tilted at a saucy angle, his 
hands were thrust into his pockets, and his 
feet, wide apart, were firmly braced. 

He looked as if ready to quarrel with 
anyone who chanced to differ with him. 

“Do you mean to say. Max, that you’d 
do such a thing?” Sprite asked. 

“I don’t say I would, and I don’t say I 
wouldn’t,” Max said in a sullen voice. 

“'V^^11, would you?” Princess Polly 
asked, but Max looked disagreeable, and 
in a few moments had turned and left 
them, as abruptly as he had come. 

For a moment Polly, Rose and Sprite 
sat very still, each looking into the faces 
of the others. 

“What made him so cross?” Sprite asked, 
“and if he did feel cross, and couldn’t help 
it, then I should have thought he would 
have stayed away.” 


2 o 8 princess POLLY AT PLAY 

“So should I,” said Polly and Rose, and 
“so should I,” echoed Sprite. 

Outside the garden wall eager ears were 
listening, and the ears belonged to a little 
figure that crouched close by the gateway, 
just out of sight of the three playmates, 
yet quite near enough to hear all that had 
been said. 

It was Gwen Harcourt. 

She had been a bit too saucy to Max 
Deland, had called him a “sissy,” and 
what boy would bear that? Max had re- 
turned the favor by calling her a “Tom- 
boy,” and then he had made a horrid face, 
and raced off up the beach. 

Then Gwen was sorry. She liked to 
play with Max, and while he could run 
away, and laugh as he went, Gwen was 
ready to cry. 

He was quite as fond of Gwen as she 


LITTLE PITCHERS 209 

was of him, but he was a great tease, and 
beside that, he liked to hear her calling to 
him to return. 

It flattered his vanity. 

“Come back, Max! Come back I'" she 
had shouted. 

“Max dear, I take it back. You’re not 
a sissy. Max! Oh, Max, I’m sorry!” 

Max heard, but he chose to keep right 
on, and at last he reached the Sherwood 
house, and pausing for breath near the 
gate, had overheard the three friends talk- 
ing about the boy who had run away from 
his home at Cliffmore. 

A few moments later he had chosen to 
enter, especially because he was feeling 
rather cross with Gwen, and as Gwen was 
not at hand to quarrel with, he entered the 
garden to sneer at what his playmates were 
saying. 


210 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

Gwen had followed him, and the time 
that he had spent in the garden had given 
her the chance to catch up. Six little stone 
steps led down from the garden to the 
beach, and Max ran down, pushed the gate 
wide, and sprang out onto the hard white 
sand. 

Gwen crouched at his left, but he shaded 
his eyes with his hand, and looked to the 
right down the beach. She was pert and 
willful with all the others, but with Max 
she was humble indeed. 

“Max, here I am, and I’m sorry I teased 
you. Do be nice to me now, won’t you? 
I won’t ever call you ‘sissy’ again.” 

“Guess you won’t!” Max said, in any- 
thing but a pleasant tone. “I wouldn’t let 
you say it if I was here, but I’ve ’bout de- 
cided to run away to sea!” 

“Oh, Max, Max! I don’t want you 


LITTLE PITCHERS 


2II 


to, and just think! What would your 
mother say?” 

Gwen meant it rightly, but it did not 
please Max. 

“There you go!” he cried. “That’s the 
same as saying ‘sissy’ again. I guess I can 
go where I want to. A man can do as he 
likes without asking.” 

Again Gwen blundered. 

“Oh, but Max, you’re not a man. You’re 
just a boy, and I wish you wouldn’t talk 
as if you meant to go ’way off somewhere.” 

Just a boy! That was aggravating. 
Max felt sure that in a moment more she 
would call him a little boy, and that would 
indeed be too much for any boy to ever 
overlook. 

Gwen laid her hand on his arm, intend- 
ing to coax him to stay, but Max was too 
angry to be easily pacified. 


212 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

“See here!” he cried, roughly brushing 
her hand from his arm. “You heard me 
say I’d "bout decided to run away to sea, 
but you don’t know whether I will or not, 
so look out and not be a tell-tale, for if I 
do go, and ever come back, and find out 
you told. I’d never speak to you!” 

Before Gwen could get over her sur- 
prise, and grasp the meaning of what he 
had said, he was off at top speed down the 
beach. 

She started to follow, but he turned and 
shouted : “Don’t you dare to tag on !” 

Poor Gwen! Max was the only play- 
mate with whom she had ever been gentle. 
She had treated him far better than she 
had ever treated the girls at Avondale, or 
the new acquaintances at Cliffmore, and 
now he was going to run away, and she 
was not to ever mention it! 


LITTLE PITCHERS 213 

She reached home very tired, and also 
very unhappy. 

At lunch she refused to eat, but that was 
not unusual. She often did that to attract 
the attention of the other boarders. 

As usual Mrs. Harcourt commenced to 
fuss, and to question her. 

“What is it, dear?” she asked. 

“Is there nothing that looks tempting?” 

Then glancing at those who sat oppo- 
site, she said: “Gwen’s appetite is so very 
dainty and capricious, she rarely cares for 
M'hat is served here.” 

The guests were a bit tired of that 
speech, as they had heard it at every meal 
during the Summer. 

“You’re too tired to eat, darling,” Mrs. 
Harcourt said. “Did you play too hard 
with Max this morning?” 

At the mention of Max, Gwen burst into 


214 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
tears, and ran from the table, dropping her 
napkin on the floor, and walking upon it 
in her flight. 

Mrs. Harcourt was really alarmed. She 
wondered what Max had done to so upset 
Gwen. Perhaps he had struck her. He 
had a terrible disposition, while Gwen had 
the temperament of an angel. So thought 
Mrs. Harcourt as she left he dining room, 
her own lunch untasted, to follow Gwen, 
and coax from her the reason for her dis- 
tress. 

The cause of any disturbance that led 
Gwen to shed tears was attributed to the 
outrageous temper of the other child, or 
children, as the case happened to be, and 
Mrs. Harcourt never dreamed that some- 
times Gwen showed a temper that was 
rather far from angelic. 

Max was not at lunch, but that caused 


LITTLE PITCHERS 215 

no surprise, because he often was absent at 
one o’clock, returning at six for dinner with 
an appetite that seemed more befitting a 
brawny tramp than a boy who was always 
well fed. 

On this day, however, he did not appear 
at dinner, and when seven, and eight, 
chimed forth from the hall clock, and still 
no Max in sight, Mrs. Deland was fright- 
ened. 

“Do keep up your courage, Mrs. De- 
land,” said a man who happened to stand 
near her. 

“Your small boy will come prancing in 
before long, just as he always does. He 
usually remains out until you are nearly 
wild, and then he comes crawling in by the 
back door, and wonders why the chef isn’t 
on hand to cook a separate dinner for 
him.” 


2i6 princess POLLY AT PLAY 

It was the truth, but Mrs. Deland 
thought the speaker exceedingly hard- 
hearted. She had telephoned to everyone 
whom she thought might have seen Max, 
but all replied that he had not been no- 
ticed, and that proved that he had not been 
near them, for the boy was so saucy, so 
noisy, and so desperately active, that he 
must have been noticed if he was any- 
where within sight. 

“Nine!” chimed the clock, and a few of 
the guests of the house organized a search- 
ing party, and started out to hunt for Max. 

They felt little interest in the matter, 
from the fact that the same thing had hap- 
pened so many times that they seemed al- 
ways to be searching for Max. 

The boy had made himself a nuisance 
in countless ways, and while neither mem- 
ber wished any harm to come to Max, they 


LITTLE PITCHERS 217 

felt that it would be a great relief if he and 
his mother would leave Cliffmore, and 
never think of returning. 

Once outside the house, however, they 
made thorough work of their search, but 
although they looked in every place that 
a small boy might get into, and in many 
that seemed impossible, they did not find 
him. 

One man, tired and disgusted, grumbled 
as he tramped along, and several others 
who did not utter the thoughts that filled 
their minds, felt every bit as disgusted as 
he did. 

“It’s nonsense, clear nonsense, tramping 
all over the place, hunting for a little run- 
away rascal, who, at this moment, is doubt- 
less eating a comfortable meal, after hav- 
ing returned when he felt like it.” 

When they reached the house, they were 


2 i 8 princess POLLY AT PLAY 
surprised to find that Max was not there. 

It was the first time that a party search- 
ing for the boy had returned to learn that 
he was still missing. 

Mrs. Deland had become quite used to 
having Max away sometimes all day, and 
often until after eight in the evening, and, 
as a rule, she was reasonably calm, but that 
nine o’clock should have passed without 
hearing from him seemed beyond belief. 

With the return of the searching party 
her courage gave w'ay, and she sank onto 
a low seat, her cheeks white, and her hands 
tightly clenched. 

The women gathered about her, trying 
to comfort her, but she seemed not to hear 
what they said. 

How still she sat, her hands still tightly 
clasped, her eyes looking from one face to 
another. 


LITTLE PITCHERS 219 

Then her eyes closed. She had fainted, 
and gently they carried her to her room, 
one woman promising to remain with her, 
after the doctor should have gone. 

Gwen had acted so strangely that Mrs. 
Harcourt had ordered a light lunch sent 
up to their room, saying that Gwen was 
too ill to go down to dinner, and that she 
would remain with her. No sound of the 
excitement reached them. It was in vain 
that she questioned Gwen. Gwen only re- 
plied that she and Max had quarreled, and 
that he had been “just perfectly horrid.” 

When morning came, Gwen awoke feel- 
ing a bit better. 

Having remained in their room all the 
afternoon and evening, they had heard 
nothing of the search for Max, nor did they 
know that he had not, as usual, returned. 


CHAPTER XII 

MAX A STOWAWAY 

S OON after breakfast, Gwen, looking 
for someone to play with, ran across 
the broad piazza to where, pale and weary, 
Mrs. Deland sat. 

“I want Max,” cried Gwen, in her usual 
pert manner. 

“Where is he? When is he coming 
out?” 

Mrs. Deland uttered a low cry. 

“He’s lost, little Gwen! Haven’t you 
heard? They ar^ searching everywhere 
for him, and they force me, his mother, to 
remain here, and wait with what patience 
I may.” 

With a sudden impulse she threw her 


220 


MAX A STOWAWAY 


221 


arms about Gwen, and held her close, then 
more gently lifted her face so that their 
eyes met. 

“You loved my little Max,” she said. 
“Are you sorry that he is not yet found? 
Stop a moment ; you played with him yes- 
terday. When did you last see him? 
When were you two children last to- 
gether?” 

“Oh, you’re hurting me, holding me so 
tight. Let go, and I’ll tell where I saw 
him,” cried Gwen. 

“Why, child, I didn’t dream I was really 
hurting you. Now tell me.” 

“I saw him ’way over to Princess Polly’s 
house,” Gwen said slowly, “and we, — we, 
oh, we quarreled some, and Max didn’t 
stay with me.” 

“Well, where did he go when he left 
you?” Mrs. Deland asked eagerly. 


222 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

A crowd had gathered about the two, 
and stood listening. 

“He told me not to tell,” said Gwen, 
shutting her lips firmly together. 

“What? You know where he is, and 
will not tell me, his own mother? Why, 
child, I am sick with worrying. Tell me, 
this moment!” 

Gwen made no reply. 

She loved Max, but she had never liked 
his mother, and that she should command 
her to tell made the little girl more stub- 
born than she had ever been before. 

“I wouldn’t tell now even if Mrs. De- 
land and all those other women stuck pins 
into me,” thought Gwen. 

It was in vain that they questioned her. 
Pleading, threatening, coaxing were equal- 
ly unavailing, and when Mrs. Harcourt, 
seeing the group, came out upon the 


MAX A STOWAWAY 


223 


piazza, Gwen flew to her, saying that 
everyone was teasing her, 

“It is an outrage !” cried Mrs. Harcourt, 
her voice shrill with anger. 

“I wonder what you can be thinking of? 
A half dozen grown people tormenting one 
small girl.” 

“My dear Mrs. Harcourt, you don’t at 
all understand,” said a tall, haughty- look- 
ing woman. “Your little daughter knows 
where the lost boy. Max Deland, is, and, 
although his mother is nearly wild with 
anxiety, she will not tell, that we may 
know where to find him.” 

Mrs. Harcourt hesitated. Then she 
looked at Gwen’s flushed cheeks and down- 
cast eyes. 

“Do you know where Max is?” she 
asked. 

“No, I donUr snapped Gwen. 


224 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

Mrs, Harcourt turned and faced them. 
She extended her hands. 

“There!” she cried. “You see, do you 
not, that it was idle to tease Gwen? She 
does not know where he is.” 

“She certainly said that she knew where 
he went,” said a stout lady. “I do know 
where he went!” shouted Gwen, but how 
do I know where he is now?” 

“Where did he go?” questioned Mrs. 
Harcourt. 

“I promised him I wouldn’t tell,” said 
Gwen, “and I won’t!” 

She wriggled from her mother’s grasp, 
and racing across the piazza, fled up the 
stairway to her room. 

“Gwen is too honorable to break a prom- 
ise,” sighed Mrs. Harcourt, as she left the 
group of disgusted ladies, to follow her 
small girl to her apartment. 


MAX A STOWAWAY 225 

“Too stubborn would be nearer the 
truth,” muttered the stout lady. 

“That child should be made to tell,” said 
another. 

“She shall be made to tell,” Mrs. De- 
land said as she turned toward the small 
room that served as an office. 

Gwen, as stubborn as a little mule, re- 
fused to tell the proprietor of the house, 
when he called her into his office, and after 
talking for a half hour on the naughtiness 
of being stubborn, and the especial naught- 
iness of not telling where Max went, and 
thus helping the searchers to find him, she 
again flatly refused. 

If it had been true honor in being de- 
termined to keep her promise that made 
Gwen refuse, one could not but praise her 
courage, but her impulse was wholly sel- 
fish. 


226 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

Max had said that if he ever returned 
and found that she had told, he would 
never speak to her again. 

She valued Max’s friendship above that 
of any of her playmates, and she refused 
to tell where he went, because he had in- 
sisted. 

There was great rejoicing at “The 
Syren’s Cave.” 

The “coming in” of the ship that Cap- 
tain Seaford had long been looking for 
proved to be even more fortunate than he 
had dreamed. 

Its cargo was indeed valuable, and as he 
obtained a much higher price for it than 
he had expected, his kindly heart was filled 
with gratefulness, and his eyes grew 
brighter, and he walked with a lighter step. 

Mrs. Seaford went about the little 


MAX A STOWAWAY 227 

house, singing at her work, and Sprite, 
happy, laughing Sprite, danced upon the 
beach, played in the surf, or rocked in her 
boat, singing, always singing of the water 
sprites, the mermen and mermaids of 
w'hom she never tired of hearing. 

Princess Polly and Rose were both de- 
lighted when they heard of the Seafords’ 
good fortune, but of the disappearance of 
Max they had not heard, because they had 
been away on a little ocean trip. 

It happened, on the day that Max de- 
cided to run away, that no steamer lay at 
the wharf, nor was there so much as a ship 
in sight. 

There was, however, a coal barge, and 
Max, determined to go on that very day, 
watched his chance, and at the first oppor- 
tunity slipped aboard, where in frantic 
haste he looked for a hiding place. 


228 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

Steps approaching set him into panic, 
and an empty barrel standing in a shadowy 
corner of the little cabin seemed his only 
refuge. 

“There’s only a few er these ol’ pertat- 
ers, so I’ll chuck ’em inter this barrel in the 
cabin,” shouted a gruff voice, and in they 
went onto Max’s head and shoulders. Not 
a sound did he make, although the pota- 
toes felt decidedly hard, and evidently had 
been thrown in with none too gentle a 
hand. 

It seemed to the boy in his cramped po- 
sition as if the coal barge would never 
start. 

At twilight, however, he felt the mo- 
tion, and knew that he was sailing away 
from Cliffmore, the empty barge to return 
with another load of coal, but he. Max De- 
land, to keep straight on in search of a land 


MAX A STOWAWAY 229 

where a fellow didn’t have to mind his 
mother, but could seek and easily find a 
fortune, and then return sufficiently inde- 
pendent to have his own way. 

It happened that Max had been seen 
sneaking aboard the vessel, and a bit later 
jumping into the empty barrel to hide, and 
the sailors had first thought of putting him 
ashore with a sharp warning to keep away 
from the barge in the future.^^ 

Then it occurred to them that a better 
lesson could be given him by letting him 
remain on board for a few days, and then 
placing him aboard of the first fishing 
smack that they met, bound for Cliffmore. 

The potatoes had not been carelessly 
thrown in upon him. It had been done in- 
tentionally, to act as a part of his punish- 
ment. 

Long before anyone on board was asleep. 


230 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
Max was wishing that he had never 
thought of running away. 

He thought of the fine dinner that had 
been served at Cliffmore hours before, and 
here was he, Max Deland, in an old and 
dirty barrel that vegetables had been 
stored in, very hungry, and with no way of 
obtaining anything to eat. 

After a time, his cramped position be- 
came unbearable, and slowly but surely 
he crept out of the barrel, and upon the 
cabin floor, where, because he was so 
weary, he fell into sound sleep. 

At daylight a group of sailors were look- 
ing down at the sleeping boy. 

The captain of the barge spoke. 

“Good-looking little chap, but he must 
learn not to try this trick again. Let him 
lie there until he wakes. Then give him 
some breakfast, hard tack and water, re- 


MAX A STOWAWAY 


231 


member, and then give him the task I set 
for him. When the first fishing smack, 
bound for Eastville appears, start him for 
home.” 

“Aye, aye, sir!” was the prompt reply, 
and the boy stirred as if he had heard it. 

“Come now! Step lively!” cried the 
mate. “No loitering on shipboard.” 

Max, hardly awake, barely grasped the 
meaning of the words, and scrambled to 
his feet. 

“Now, then, forward march if you 
want something to eat.” 

Max marched. He dared not refuse, 
but he did rebel when he saw what was 
offered for his breakfast. 

“I can’t eat that!” he said angrily. 

“All right! Forward, march! We’ll 
let ye work on an empty stomach if ye 
really hanker to.” 


232 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

All sorts of tasks were set for him, and 
for the next few days he was kept exceed- 
ingly busy. 

He learned to do as he was told, and to 
do it promptly; to eat what was given him 
without grumbling, and there was some- 
thing else that he learned by his hard ex- 
perience. He learned what a fortunate 
boy he had always been ; to appreciate all 
the good things that had always been so 
freely given him, and above all these, he 
longed for his mother’s love. 

He thought what a good boy he’d be if 
ever he reached the shore, and he resolved 
never to run away, whatever happened 
that displeased him. 

A happy boy was Max when a passing 
smack stopped long enough so that he 
could be taken on board, and then headed 
straight for Cliffmore. 


MAX A STOWAWAY 233 

Max thought nothing had ever looked 
so beautiful as the cliffs from which Cliff- 
more took its name, when in the early 
morning they sailed into the bay, and saw 
the warm sunlight kissing land and sea. 

Ah, he would never run away again, for 
now he knew the value of home and love. 

He ran all the way from the wharf, and 
up the beach and climbed the great ledge 
on which sat the house where with his 
mother he had been staying. He rushed 
up the steps to the piazza, wildly crying : 

“Where are you*? Where is everybody*? 
I’ve come home ! I’ve come home !” 

They came at once, and from every di- 
rection, like ants from an ant hill, and 
swarmed around him, asking more ques- 
tions than he could answer. 

A tall, handsome woman rushed across 
the piazza, her eyes bright with hope. 


234 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

“Stand aside!” she cried. “It is Max! 
My little Max! I know his voice! Oh, 
let me reach him!” 

The crowd parted, and the boy was in- 
stantly clasped in his mother’s arms. 

“My own ! My darling !” she sobbed. 

“I won’t ever run away again!” he re- 
sponded, his arms about her neck. 

“Come !” said one of the crowd that had 
gathered. “Let them be alone together 
for a while,” and as with one accord the 
group melted, the guests going far from 
the two who, for the time being, needed no 
other company than each other. 

Of course, a bit later Max told his story 
to eager listeners, and when he had finished 
the little tale, he said: “And you folks 
ought to know that Gwen was a regular 
brick, to keep the secret I told her not to 
let out. Any girl but Gwen would have 


MAX A STOWAWAY 235 

told it first thing, but Gwen is a brick. 
Don’t all of you think so?” 

A gentleman on the outskirts of the little 
crowd proposed cheers. 

“Three cheers for Max and his brick!” 
he shouted, and they gave them with a 
will. 

On the same morning that the little fish- 
ing smack brought Max home to Cliff- 
more, the beautiful steam yacht. Dol- 
phin, sailed into the bay, with its owner, 
Captain John Atherton, and his beautiful 
bride standing together on the deck, and 
returning the salutes of the host of friends 
who awaited them on the wharf. 

Handkerchiefs were waved by the ladies, 
hats were swung by the men, and foremost 
in the waiting crowd stood little Rose 
Atherton, a basket of roses to offer them, 
and the housekeeper close beside her, lest 


236 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
in her excitement she might actually be 
swept olf the pier. 

“Oh, I’m so glad, so glad!” cried Rose. 

“Dear Uncle John, and dear ” she 

paused. 

What should she call this lovely young 
woman? 

Iris laughed. 

“You must learn to call me ‘Aunt Iris,’ ” 
she said, stooping to kiss the little blushing 
face. 

“I’ll love to,” Rose said, “and I won’t 
have to learn, same’s I won’t have to learn 
to love you, for I love you now, you are so 
sweet, so lovely.” 

“Oh, John, was there ever a sweeter wel- 
come? I am so happy.” 

At the reception a week later, Rose stood 
beside the dear, new aunt, and felt very 
proud and happy “helping to receive.” 


MAX A STOWAWAY 


237 

Princess Polly and Sprite were delight- 
ed that Rose was now to be so happy. 

“Of course it is dearest to have one’s 
own mamma,” Polly said, “but Rose had 
neither papa nor mamma, so lovely Mrs. 
Iris is next best, and I do truly think she 
is dear.” 

“So do I,” agreed Sprite, “and of course 
if Rose was happy with her Uncle John 
she’ll be just so much happier with her 
new aunt, but who told you to call her 
‘Mrs. Iris’?” 

“No one,” said Polly, but for that 
minute I couldn’t think of Atherton, and 

■N. 

I couldn’t call her Mrs. Captain John. Of 
course she is Mrs. Atherton now.” 

“Oh, yes,” agreed Sprite, “and my 
mamma says she’s almost an angel. She 
did truly say that this morning, and Pa 
said: 


238 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 

“ ‘That’s just what she is, and Captain 
John Atherton is a lucky man and I’m glad 
for him.” 

Already, plans were being made for the 
return to Avondale, and Rose, Princess 
Polly and Sprite were looking forward to 
the opening of school when, with Harry 
and Leslie, Lena and Rob, Vivian, and all 
the other playmates, they would be having 
the pleasant school days, and the good 
times that were always enjoyed at Avon- 
dale. 

Gyp was to be “indoor man” on Captain 
Atherton’s place, and study in evening 
classes, taking a business course that 
would fit him for a better position that the 
captain assured him should surely be his, 
if he excelled in his class work. 

Sprite was indeed to be happy. The 
year before she had spent at the Avondale 


MAX A STOWAWAY 239 

school, making her home with Princess 
Polly and Rose. She had been happy with 
them, but of course, at times, she was some- 
what homesick. 

This year would be so different. Cap- 
tain Seaford’s good fortune enabled him 
to rent a small apartment for the Winter 
at Avondale, and there Sprite could enjoy 
her school, and merry playmates, and yet 
be with her parents. 

Gwen Harcourt was telling all whom 
she met at Cliffmore that she was very 
tired of living at Avondale, and that she 
did not think she should live there much 
longer. She said that if she fussed enough 
about it, her mamma would take her some- 
where else. All who knew Gwen felt rea- 
sonably sure that she would “fuss.” 

Rose knew that her home at Avondale 
would now be perfect. Uncle John would 


240 PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY 
love her as he always had loved her, and 
of her new aunt she was already very fond. 

Surely it promised to be a bright and 
happy Winter for Princess Polly and her 
friends, the merry playmates at Avondale, 
where good times and gay spirits prevailed 
and kind and happy hearts worked with 
equal zeal at study and at merry-making. 

THE END 



- 


t .. 


•N ^;-u ••'' i I^V; ;J, i : , -j 


if: > . : iV- ■ .-A ■'■ ■> • ; * . ■-• 




} 


'fV 






: -JA 


* : 


i:*. 


■> 


• > 









r 


■<, 

i '. • » .- 



iWV^. ^ , 

V i: ^ 


'/A A 


' V‘. /: ^•■■' '. ■ V . .. .:;' 

i7rH®^ i' - /'; •■■ ■. ,' .a;,. "•,.v/' 1 '..' • ■' ■ V?w T it c R ‘& M 

' lyy I *f a:^: v.riv-* - v ' -.■' ; ■' 




•■ >4 • 4 

'•‘i 

. .** • ' 





^.. v>J4u77^Qnnfl . 

tfri 


n 


% . I 


I , • 


j . 



> . r 

• * ^ I 


/{\i - .M^'A' . ' ' ■'^•^ ' '^'•' ■ j ■ '■ . '<> <" • ■ ’ ■■ ■ a ' H’^'"-.^' . :t' 

.: M *r >••-.' *VAOTfrr 


.V/fV ' 




- • 

* 


>v 


mP 


..d)' 


)’? 




ik 


^1* 




' T’ 1 ; V' 

- '■>■.-*•:’ ' 'Vi* : 

a' ' • A 

. ’ '■ 

v47‘*'J- - j :.• 


',V»?'-'ir''" O' ■••.' 

‘ 

■ If' •* 

r'.'r ■>//•■; ^ - 

, 


i-'.ir,' 


.VvV 


^ * 


\-. • ■ « ' ••. f'-V' y- •^ iTTF'^v-/* ••^»‘J**. 





M * <’ 








■^'•.j,.;',.f f ;^.; V. 


v " ** '■ -:7f. A 


‘'jSi**' *.' u 4 i-. 


JTt'fA ‘''•- <!* i 










I 


% 


I 






> 




I 


V 





/ 


V 




/ 


V 



I 


■): ' 

r, • ' 

■ I 


/ 


I 




! 






( 


t 



I 


t 




I 


t 


1 * , ’ ' 

- ' i V- ' ' 

•I I 








( 


4 



